I ain't gonna miss you either.
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Shystie - Diamond In The Dirt
At last, we get to grime and UK hip-hop....
1 Intro Skit
2 One Wish
3 Gutter
4 Step Bac
5 Woman's World (Gurlz Stand Up)
6 Questions (Game show)
7 Make It Easy
8 Unfinished Bizzness
9 Bank Robbery feat Ron,e Redeyez
10 get loose
11 Can't Play
12 Somedayz Skit
13 Somedayz
14 Armshouse
15 Juiced
HERE!!!
The Beatnuts - Musical Massacre
Psycho Les! Ju Ju!
1. Intro
2. Beatnuts Forever - Featuring Triple Seis/Marlon "Perro" Manson
3. Muchachacha - Featuring Willie Stubz/Swinger
4. I Love It
5. Slam Pit - Featuring Cuban Link/Common
6. Wild, Wild, What! - Interlude
7. Look Around - Featuring Dead Prez/Cheryl Pepsi Riley
8. Cocotaso
9. Monster For Music
10. Spelling Beatnuts With Lil' Donny
11. Puffin' On A Cloud
12. Turn It Out - Featuring Greg Nice
13. Rated R - Featuring Nogodus
14. Who You're Fuckin' Wit - Interlude
15. Story 2000 - Featuring Patrick Blazy
16. Watch Out Now
17. You're A Clown - Featuring Biz Markie/Tyler Fernandez
18. Buddah In The Air - Featuring Carl Thomas/Gob Goblin
19. Se Acabo (It's Over) - Featuring Magic Juan/Swinger
HERE!!!!
Postville Rally/March
So I guess there was around 2,000 people at the rally. People came from Madison, Chicago, and Minnesota, among other places. People from the Jewish Council On Urban Affairs, Socialist Worker's Party, SEIU, Socialist Party and numerous other groups were there. More than anything though, there were people wearing FMLN shirts ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FMLN) . We started in a church, where there was a service in english, spanish and hebrew, then moved into the streets and marched around the town. What seemed like hundreds of little children were banging drums, waving Mexican and Guatemalan flags and singing and yelling in spanish. There were statements read in front of Agriprocessors and we went past the fuckwad counterprotesters, who were waving signs like "What Would Jesus Do? Obey The Law!" C'mon now. The piggies seemed pretty sympathetic to the Minutemen-types and very worried about us, even though we weren't the ones looking all hostile and angry like the jingoistic morons across the streets. There was a short argument between some of us and the police over dispersal orders, which was diffused quickly. Overall, the best march I've been to. People were in good spirits and seeing groups of Latino kids taunting the Minutemen types was worth the trip alone.
Some Pix:
http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/jj292/conatz/DSCF1846.jpg
http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/jj292/conatz/DSCF1847.jpg
http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/jj292/conatz/DSCF1848.jpg
http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/jj292/conatz/DSCF1849.jpg
http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/jj292/conatz/DSCF1850.jpg
http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/jj292/conatz/DSCF1854.jpg
http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/jj292/conatz/DSCF1855.jpg
http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/jj292/conatz/DSCF1856.jpg
http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/jj292/conatz/DSCF1859.jpg
http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/jj292/conatz/DSCF1862.jpg
http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/jj292/conatz/DSCF1863.jpg
http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/jj292/conatz/DSCF1864.jpg
http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/jj292/conatz/DSCF1866.jpg
http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/jj292/conatz/DSCF1869.jpg
http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/jj292/conatz/DSCF1870.jpg
Unconventional Denver Offers to Call Off All DNC Protests
Before the steps of City Hall, anarchists with Unconventional Denver made an uncanny move, offering to call off all protests if the City of Denver granted one simple request- take the $50 million security budget intended to brutalize and repress free speech and instead invest it in the local communities of Denver.
7.28.08: Complete Text of Unconventional Denver Statement
Unconventional Denver, an anarchist and anti-authoritarian group organizing direct action to confront the Democratic National Convention this August, is here today on the steps of the City and County Building to make an offer. We are here to make clear our vision of a world where the needs of people and the earth guide our decisions and where democracy is direct and face to face. The heavily policed, corporate funded political spectacle coming to Denver at the end of August is yet another jarring example of how the government and its wealthy backers’ priorities are exactly the opposite.
We are here however, to give the City of Denver, Federal Government, and the DNC a chance to prove us wrong.
In a few minutes, the City Council of Denver will be meeting in the building behind us to discuss an emergency ordinance aimed at restricting what demonstrators can carry during the DNC and beyond. The peddlers of these enhanced police powers continue to insist that people looking to exercise free speech and stand up against a corrupt system will allegedly be carrying disgusting weapons such as “super soakers filled with urine.”
Anyone who takes a close look at the recent history of mass street protests in this country knows that there is no record of this ever happening. In fact, if you were to look back on protests, including those in Denver itself, you would not see images of fecal covered protesters terrorizing the public. What you would see instead are police forces again and again acting above their own laws. Police minimize and marginalize free speech through protest pens, unnecessary force and unjustified arrests, and through ridiculous, unnecessary ordinances such as the one before council today. Major court cases have come from New York, Seattle, Miami, Washington D.C. and other cities where the courts have found that the police intentionally brutalize protesters to silence their dissent and have been forced to pay out millions in damages and compensation to protesters they have systematically targeted. This exemplifes that the violence and lawlessness was not coming from protesters, but in fact the government itself.
And so in a way, local government officials and the corporate media are right about the coming violence that will descend on Denver. It is true that there is a group mobilizing forces from across the country and amassing exotic weapons they refuse to disclose to the public. They have a track record of inflicting violence on unarmed civilians and illegally spying on citizens working towards positive change. They even dress in black- they are the Denver Police and the various local, state and federal forces that will be transforming Denver into a miniature version of the occupation of Iraq when the DNC comes to town.
This invasion has been given one of the largest single allotments of any department in Denver history. The DNC comes to Denver with a $50 million dollars security budget — money that was tacked on to funding for the War in Iraq and approved by the Democrats. And like the war abroad, the militarization of Denver comes at an equally high cost. Imagine the Denver Public Schools receiving $50 million dollars for a week-long event. That money alone would be enough to re-open six of the schools closed last year. Or what if that money were invested in the healthcare program? It would provide 18,986 uninsured children with a year’s worth of healthcare they deserve. This would be a small but important step towards taking care of the more than 160,000 children in the Denver area without healthcare coverage. And yet, as anarchists, we know that this will never happen. Addressing the real needs of the people is not in the interest of the government or its wealthy backers.
There will be no democracy within the DNC. There will be no one sincerely addressing the grave problems the average person in the United States faces on a daily basis. There will only be a scripted political performance guarded by walls of heavily armed riot police as party insiders and corporate lobbyists live it up behind closed doors.
We, Unconventional Denver, have a different vision of what democracy is. We see democracy as direct; where decisions are made by those most affected, not those with the most money; where democracy penetrates every aspect of our lives; where the workers rather than CEOs decide how their workplace should look; where instead of incarcerating more people than any other country, we meet the needs of our children and raise them in loving communities. We seek a world where the land is seen for what it is, the source of life, not a piece of property to be exploited for profit. The government will never bring these visions to fruition; in fact it stands in the way of it. It will take us as people, organizing on a grassroots level to make the change we wish to see.
This is why we are taking to the streets. Enough is enough. This government does not care about meeting people’s needs. AT&T, Lockheed Martin, Coca Cola- Obama will serve the same big money that all politicians end up serving. As anarchists working towards dismantling this corrupt political system of violence and corporate greed, we are not going to allow this spectacle to go uninterrupted-
unless the City of Denver, the Federal Government and the Democratic Party can prove us wrong.
We have watched Obama ride a wave of political momentum based on a vague rhetoric of hope and change all the way here to Denver. We however, are demanding that real change be implemented immediately. If the Democrats want to show they are sincere and are going to depart from the sad state of politics in this country then they should start immediately…. and use the convention as an example.
So we come here today with this offer:
If the Democrats and their allies in the city government of Denver can show their good faith … can show they are immediately working for real positive change by using their 50 million dollar federal grant for something better than crushing democracy then we will change our plans. If they are willing to do this, then Unconventional Denver and hundreds of anarchists coming to town will sit this one out. We Anarchists are willing to call off all of our protests, if the democrats are willing to call off their occupation of Denver and re-invest their police budget toward real community security.
New elementary schools; healthcare for the uninsured; providing clean, renewable energy to the city- 50 million dollars could do all of this. If this money is used to concretely demonstrate that meeting people’s needs will be the top priority of the Democratic Party and the City of Denver instead of protecting the robber barons of today, we will spend the last week of August with our friends and family continuing our work of furthering our communities instead of direct action confronting the Democratic National Convention.
Otherwise…. we’ll see you in the streets.
Crash The Convention-2008 Call To Action
On September 1-4 of 2008, the Republican Party is coming to Minnesota to celebrate their latest conquests in global domination and exploitation. We of the RNC Welcoming Committee want to make sure that this time the fear-mongers will be met with their own biggest fear: people mobilized, organized, and taking the future back into their own hands.
For those of you who abhor the rapid growth of racist militarized borders across stolen lands, the raids and deportations, destruction and commodification of our shared and living earth, police brutality and prison industry, fear propaganda and subjugation, exploitation and robbery of peoples worldwide, and all forms of injustice and oppression - we ask you to be prepared for 2008. This will require new alliances, strong networks, the awakening of those who’ve given up, as well as the mobilization of those who’ve never before taken action. Let’s use this opportunity to make the changes we thirst for manifest and take root before us, making the Republicans/Democrats (whatever you want to call them) obsolete.
Labor Day weekend of 2007, anarchists and anti-authoritarians from across the country gathered in the Twin Cities to develop goals and plans for the RNC 2008. This is what we’ve come up with:
What we want (the goals):
1. Build Our Capacity – A new reality will not emerge by simply stopping the 4 day spectacle of the RNC. We need folks with an alternative vision to come to the Twin Cities and turn their dreams into reality. Start something new, be creative, and come ready to build sustainable alternatives worth fighting for and defending. The new skills that we teach, learn, and put into practice here will allow us to return to our communities stronger, smarter, and more empowered.
2. Crash the Convention – We didn’t get an invitation, but we’re showing up anyway. This party will be what we make of it. We don’t want to confine our potential by imposing a single vision of what success will look like. We recognize that there will be a lot of people coming with their own agendas and carefully laid plans and want to be open to the diverse tactics that will be necessary to accomplish our many goals. Together, we can derail the purely ceremonial show of this repressive system and remake it with our own hands and according to our own visions.
How we get there (the strategy):
1. Start Strong – Throw all of our energy into the first day. We’ll kick this off right and stretch the militarized police state out so far that it can no longer contain and suppress our voices and desires.
2. Transportation Troubles – This includes blockades downtown (at key intersections), on bridges (10 bridges over the Mississippi River in the metro area), and other sporadic and strategic targets (busses, hotel and airport shuttles etc).
3. Respect, defend, and be prepared for autonomous self-sustaining alternatives – Lasting projects and spaces will be born out of our actions and will need to be protected. We also won’t knowingly bring the hammer down on existing long-term community projects. It doesn’t matter if we win the RNC battle, if the war for our lives is lost.
4. Be inclusive of local communities and respect alliances – We are all on the same side of the barricades and are trying to build lasting bonds for future mutual aid. We may not agree with each other on all of our tactics, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t venues for us to work together and build on the trust and community that already exists.
What the Welcoming Committee is doing:
1. Logistical support – We will organize legal support, housing, food, transportation, and a convergence space as well as anything else you may need to make our collective actions successful.
2. Framework coordinating – We will map out key points and layouts and gather intelligence to help you plug into the bigger picture. Let us know your needs, desires, and capacities.
3. Local outreach – We are building alliances with local groups and communities to help build our collective support. We encourage you to do the same.
4. Networking – We’re hooking y’all up with each-other so that you can work with people you might not already know, strategize, and share a glass of some good old mutual aid.
What we are calling for:
1. Get it together – Have regional consultas, organize in your communities, and form your affinity groups. We are expecting people to come with concrete plans for action that they have devised and the capacity to carry them through.
2. Lead up actions – Practice makes perfect. Use this entire year leading up to the RNC to develop and practice your own tactics and strategies that step things up a notch and build true alternatives. Resistance doesn’t start and end at ‘the next big protest’; it is a way of life.
3. Fundraising – We’re not saying to let your community projects flounder, but we’re going to need some serious cash to help arrange legal support (we’re still looking for a lawyer dumpster), a convergence space, and a thousand other logistical puzzles. Pass the hat at every regional consulta and meeting you attend, hold fundraisers, and send a chunk of it in our direction!
4. Communicate – Maintain strong security-culture values, but let us know your capacities and what you will need. If you want a single point person to communicate with, we can arrange it. What you say you can do and will need shapes the course that we take.
5. Come to the Twin Cities – Come early and come often! Take advantage of that “Minnesota Nice” and come long before the convention to help make things happen. Also, put May Day weekend (May 1st - 4th 2008) on your calendars to send a representative or two from your group to the Twin Cities for our next networking and strategizing event (more info TBA).
September 1st, 2008, we, the RNC Welcoming Committee, invite all anarchists and anti-authoritarians, all radicals and rabble-rousers, all those who are fed up with government lies and spectacles to show up ready for action and ensure that we leave no place for these expired politicians. What we create here will send the convention crashing off course into insignificance.
From the occupied territories of Minnesota,
The RNC Welcoming Committee
nornc.org
Strategy endorsed by:
ACTIVATE (Grand Rapids, MI Students for a Democratic Society - SDS)
Anarchist Black Cross Para-Legal Services (twitchon@hotmail.com)
Animas SDS (Colorado)
Anti-Authoritarians Anonymous (Milwaukee)
Asheville Rising Tide
Athens, OH SDS
Attentat Collective
Bash Back!
Brainerd Anarchists (georgewchrist@hushmail.com)
Campus Anti-war Network
Chicago Anarchist Black Cross (PO Box 1544, Chicago, IL 60690)
CrimethInc. Far East
Delaware SDS
End to Apathy
Frederick Progressive Action Coalition
HammerHard MediaWorks
Industrial Workers of the World - NYC GMB Branch
International Solidarity Movement - Chicago Chapter
Iowa Organizing Against the RNC
MKE to RNC
Milwaukee Anarchist Black Cross
Milwaukee Anti-Racist Action
NC State SDS
Northeast Anarchist Network
Northwest Indiana Anarchist Black Cross (PO Box 1511, Portage, IN 46368)
People’s Networking Convention Organizing Committee
Potomac Earth First!
Queer Action Network
Rising Tide North America
RNC Welcoming Committee
Rolling Thunder magazine
Sabot Infosquat
Shepherdstown Progressive Action Committee
Tacoma SDS - UPS Chapter
Talking Tree Infoshop
Tuscarora High SDS
UA Central NC
UA in the Bay
UCLA SDS
Unconventional Denver
Crass-Penis Envy
Godawful musicians. Top notch lyrics. Download or die.
# "Bata Motel"
# "Systematic Death"
# "Poison In A Pretty Pill"
# "What The Fuck?"
# "Where Next Columbus?"
# "Berkertex Bribe"
# "Smother Love"
# "Health Surface"
# "Dry Weather"
# "Our Wedding"
HERE!!!!
Funkadelic-Music For Your Mother
Do I really have to say anything about the almighty Funkadelic?
Disc One
1. "Music For My Mother" (Clinton, Nelson, Hazel)
* alternate version of track from the album Funkadelic
2. "Music For My Mother [Instrumental]" (Clinton, Nelson, Hazel)
3. "Can't Shake It Loose" (Clinton, Barnes, McCoy, Jackson)
4. "As Good As I Can Feel" (songwriters unknown)
5. "I'll Bet You" (Clinton, Barnes, Lindsey)
* alternate version of track from the album Funkadelic
6. "Qualify And Satisfy" (Clinton, Hazel, Nelson)
* single edit of track from the album Funkadelic
7. "Open Our Eyes" (Lumkins)
8. "I Got A Thing, You Got A Thing, Everybody Got A Thing" (Haskins)
* single edit of track from the album Funkadelic
9. "Fish, Chips And Sweat" (Clinton, Nelson, Hazel)
10. "I Wanna Know If It's Good To You" (Clinton, Nelson, Hazel, Haskins)
* first part of track from the album Free Your Mind... and Your Ass Will Follow
11. "I Wanna Know If It's Good To You [Instrumental]" (Clinton, Nelson, Hazel, Haskins)
* second part of track from the album Free Your Mind... and Your Ass Will Follow
12. "You And Your Folks, Me And My Folks" (Clinton, Worrell, Jones)
* extended version of track from the album Maggot Brain
13. "Funky Dollar Bill" (Clinton, Hazel, Davis)
* alternate mix of track from the album Free Your Mind... and Your Ass Will Follow
14. "Can You Get To That" (Clinton, Harris)
* from the album Maggot Brain
15. "Back In Our Minds" (Haskins)
* from the album Maggot Brain
16. "I Miss My Baby" (Haskins)
Disc Two
1. "Baby I Owe You Something Good" (Clinton)
* later re-recorded for the album Let's Take It to the Stage
2. "Hit It And Quit It" (Clinton, Nelson)
* single edit of track from the album Maggot Brain
3. "A Whole Lot Of BS" (Clinton, Worrell)
4. "Loose Booty" (Clinton, Beane)
* single edit of track from the album America Eats Its Young
5. "A Joyful Process" (Clinton, Worrell)
* single edit of track from the album America Eats Its Young
6. "Cosmic Slop" (Clinton, Worrell)
* single edit of track from the album Cosmic Slop
7. "If You Don't Like The Effects, Don't Produce The Cause" (Clinton, Shider)
* single edit of track from the album America Eats Its Young
8. "Standing On The Verge Of Getting It On" (Clinton, Cook)
* single edit of track from the album Standing on the Verge of Getting It On
9. "Jimmy's Got A Little Bit Of Bitch In Him" (Clinton, Cook)
* from the album Standing on the Verge of Getting It On
10. "Red Hot Mamma" (Clinton, Hazel, Worrell)
* single edit of track from the album Standing on the Verge of Getting It On
11. "Vital Juices" (Clinton)
12. "Better By The Pound" (Clinton, Cook)
* from the album Let's Take It to the Stage
13. "Stuffs And Things" (Clinton, Cook)
* from the album Let's Take It to the Stage
14. "Let's Take It To The Stage" (Clinton, Collins, Shider)
* single edit of track from the album Let's Take It to the Stage
15. "Biological Speculation" (Clinton, Harris)
* from the album America Eats Its Young
16. "Undisco Kidd" (Clinton, Collins, Worrell)
* single edit of track from the album Tales of Kidd Funkadelic
17. "How Do Yeaw View You" (Clinton, Collins, Worrell)
* from the album Tales of Kidd Funkadelic
Part 1
Part 2
Holy Roman Empire-The Lounge Duree
Somewhat of a guilty pleasure band for me....anyway, the vocals are GODDAMN! They from Chicago.
HERE!!!!!
Sean Price-Jesus Price Supastar
Half of Heltah Skeltah and top 5 alive.
01. Intro (Jesus Price)
02. Like You
03. P-Body (Feat. Rock)
04. Cardiac (Feat. Buckshot, Rustee Juxx & Flood)
05. Stop
06. Violent
07. Da God (Feat. Sadat X & Buckshot)
08. Oops Upside Your Head (Feat. Steele)
09. Church (Feat. Rock & The Loudmouf Choir Church)
10. King Kong
11. One
12. You Already Know (Feat. Skyzoo)
13. Directors Cut
14. Let It Be Known (Feat. Phonte)
15. Hearing Aid (Feat. Chaundon)
16. Mess You Made (Feat. Block Mccloud Of Brooklyn Academy)
HERE!!!!!!!!
Ganked From: http://hothiphopalbums.blogspot.com/2008/07/sean-price-jesus-price-supastar-2007.html
Paris-Sonic Jihad
Political hip-hop from the Yay Area!
"Ave Bushani"
"Field Nigga Boogie"
"Sheep to the Slaughter "
"Spilt Milk" (featuring Capleton)
"Tear Shit up" (featuring Dead Prez)
"Freedom" (featuring Dead Prez)
"Ain't No Love" (featuring Kam)
"Lay Low"
"Life Goes On"
"You Know My Name"
"Evil"
"AWOL"
"Agents of Repression"
"What Would You Do"
"How We Do"
"Freedom" (The Last Call Remix) (featuring Public Enemy and Dead Prez)
HERE!!!!!!!!!!!
Ganked From: http://danef.blogspot.com/2008/06/paris-sonic-jihad2003.html
Poison Idea-Feel The Darkness
Poison Idea was formed in 1980 by vocalist Jerry A. (aka Jerry Lang). The initial lineup consisted of Jerry A., Tom “Pig Champion” Roberts (guitar), Glen Estes (bass), and Dean Johnson (drums). Inspired by Black Flag and other early Southern California hardcore acts, they were further influenced by Discharge and Los Angeles’s the Germs. Germs singer Darby Crash was a strong influence on singer Jerry A.—vocally, lyrically, and philosophically—was monumental, and Poison Idea followed the Germs’ extremist punk ethic.
HERE!!!!!
Ganked From: http://lucidmedia.blogspot.com/2008/02/poison-idea-feel-darkness.html
J Dilla-Unreleased Beats
James Dewitt Yancey (February 7, 1974–February 10, 2006), better known as J Dilla or Jay Dee, was an American hip hop producer and emcee, who emerged from the mid-1990s underground hip-hop scene in Detroit, Michigan. He began his career as “Jay Dee” but used the name “J Dilla” from 2001 on. Many critics believe J Dilla’s work to have had a major influence on his peers, and he perhaps embodied the neo soul sound, playing a defining yet understated role during the sub-genre’s rise (roughly from the mid-90s to the early 2000s).
HERE!!!
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Monday, July 28, 2008
French Mourn Leisure Lost as 35-Hour Workweek Ends
Michel Guyot often takes a weekday off to go to the Sugiton limestone cliffs on the Mediterranean Sea in southern France to smell the thyme and listen to the cicadas. Those cherished moments may soon be history, he says.
The engineer for a Total SA venture at a port near Marseille says it's likely to be just a matter of months before his employer applies a law passed by France's parliament this week that may reduce time off for white-collar workers, or cadres, by as many as 17 days a year.
``It's a specter, a cloud over my head,'' said Guyot, 60. ``No more escapes to Sugiton to take a step back from work. This law will bring more stress, frustration and less productivity.''
Guyot, like other white-collar workers, is bracing for a dimming of their ``joie de vivre'' as President Nicolas Sarkozy pushes to keep a promise to ``restore the value of work.'' With the late night passage of the law on July 23, Sarkozy has rung the death knell of France's 35-hour workweek, undoing labor rules put in place a decade ago by the Socialist Party.
Under that system, blue-collar workers were limited to 35 hours a week on the job. Cadres received days off to compensate for working more than 35 hours a week, giving them total annual paid leave of about seven weeks, including vacation.
French employees' hours are the second-lowest in the Group of Seven industrialized countries, behind Germany, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. The French worked an average 1,561 hours in 2007, 291 fewer than in 1979. American workers put in 1,794 hours, down 31 hours.
Boosting Growth
The new law, which lets companies negotiate working hours, overtime and compensatory time directly with employees, is part of Sarkozy's effort to counter a slump in economic growth and may come into effect in early September.
Since taking office last year, Sarkozy has blamed the 35- hour workweek for weakening French competitiveness. He fired his first salvo last year, allowing blue-collar employees to work more than the cap, in exchange for 25 percent more pay for additional hours. Companies were exempt from labor taxes for these hours.
The new law dismantles the final piece of the rule, allowing cadres and their employers to swap days off for more pay. It raises the upper-limit of working days to 235 a year from 218, paying cadres 10 percent more than their standard salary for each day above 218.
The Socialist Party and minority centrist groups asked France's Constitutional Council today to rule on whether the law breaches the ``social foundations'' of the Republic, Jean-Marc Ayrault, the party's leader in the National Assembly, said in an e-mailed statement.
Paris Street Protest
Many cadres -- who make up just over 15 percent of the working population -- are infuriated with the new law.
``Sarkozy is always asking for more, more productivity, more hours,'' Bernard Van Craeynest, president of their CFE-CGC union said. ``But eventually he'll see more sick leave, less motivation, more burnouts.''
More than 300 cadres from companies including France Telecom SA and steelmaker ArcelorMittal took to the streets of Paris on July 23 with banners saying, ``There's life beyond work,'' and ``It's my private life, I care.''
``Working more for those who want to is a right,'' said Eric Pigal, 44, a manager at Accenture Ltd. in Paris and a CFE- CGC union representative. ``But paid 10 percent extra? That's not enough.''
Life Balance
The French have paid for their extra time off. Average annual wages in France grew just 3.4 percent from 1995 to 2006, slower than the 4.7 percent rise in the U.K. French economic growth has lagged behind the U.K.'s every year since 2000.
``Having more leisure time and no money to make it worth it is like lying to yourself,'' said Michel Sapranides, who owns Pelatis SA, a 40-person electrical maintenance business near Paris. Sapranides says the new law will help his business expand faster. Most of his employees have offered to work more to earn more, he said.
Not everybody is so optimistic.
``The 35-hour week brought us a balance between working hard and having time to enjoy the fruits of our labor,'' says Patrick Lecuyer, 47, who is based in Toulouse and organizes assembly lines for Airbus SAS.
Lecuyer uses his compensatory days off for adventures, such as climbing Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania with friends in 2003.
``By breaking the system, companies may break white-collar employees' motivation,'' he said.
French white-collar workers earned an average of 3,855 euros ($6,045) a month after taxes in 2006, four times the minimum wage and twice the average private-sector income, according to the Paris-based Insee statistics institute.
Political Risk
Cadres were among the biggest Sarkozy supporters in the May 6, 2007, presidential election, with 52 percent voting for him, according to Paris-based pollster Ipsos. His approval rating among them dropped 23 points to 30 percent, it said this month.
``The 35-hour workweek was most favorable to the cadres because they had the money to enjoy their free time,'' said Jean-Francois Doridot, head of public opinion at Ipsos. ``There is a political risk in attempting to take it away.''
Guyot agrees.
``Sarkozy's desire is to awaken France and boost growth,'' he said. ``But for me, his plans sound more like a call for austerity than modernity.''
Saturday, July 26, 2008
Middle Class-Homeland
One of the first hardcore punk bands goes all dark post-punk on us.
http://www.frontierrecords.com/middleclass.html
Dillinger Four-Situationist Comedy
One of my (and apparently Avril's) favorite bands. Drunken, political, sarcastic, greAt!
1 Noble Stabbings!!
2 A Floater Left With Pleasure In The Executive Washroom
3 Fuzzy Pink Hand-Cuffs
4 The Father, The Son, And The Homosexual/Single Parent
5 Sell The House Sell The Car Sell The Kids Find Someone Else...
6 Folk SongClick to listen to this song
7 Fired-Side Chat
8 I Was Born On A Pirate Ship! (Hold Your Tongue)
9 D4=Putting The "F" Back In "Art"
10 All Rise For The Rational Anthem
11 Labour Issues In The Toy Department
12 File Under "Adult Urban Contemporary"
13 New Punk Fashions For The Spring Formal
HERE!!!!
The Jam-In The City
01 Art School (2:02)
02 I've Changed My Address (3:31)
03 Slow Down (2:39)
04 I Got By in Time (2:07)
05 Away from the Numbers (4:03)
06 Batman Theme (1:31)
07 In the City (2:19)
08 Sounds from the Street (3:14)
09 Non-Stop Dancing (2:28)
10 Time for Truth (3:10)
11 Takin' My Love (2:15)
12 Bricks and Mortar (2:37)
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Ganked From: AND.......
Cockney Rejects-Oi Oi Oi!
The Cockney Rejects are an Oi! punk band which formed in the East End of London in 1979.
1.-Bad Man
2.- I’m Not A Fool
3.-East End
5.-West Side Boys
6.-War On The Terraces
7.-Oi! Oi! Oi!
8.-The Rocker
9.-We Are The Firm
10.-We Can Do Anything
11.-Are You Ready To Ruck
12.-Hate Of The City
13.-Where The Hell Is Babylon
14.-Flares ‘n Slippers
15.-Police Car
16.-I Wanna Be A Star
17.-Dead Generation
18.-Man’s Life In The Army
19.-Motorhead
20.-Greatest Cockney Ripoff
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Stiff Little Fingers-Inflammable Material
Stiff Little Fingers are a punk band, originally based in Belfast, Northern Ireland, formed in 1977. They started out as a schoolboy band called Highway star, doing rock covers, until they discovered punk. They split up after six years, and four albums, although they subsequently reformed five years later, in 1987. Despite massive personnel changes, they are still touring and recording as of 2006.
1 - Suspect Device
2 - State of Emergency
3 - Here We Are Nowhere
4 - Wasted Life
5 - No More of That
6 - Barbed Wire Love
7 - White Noise
8 - Breakout
9 - Law and Order
10 - Rough Trade
11 - Johnny Was
12 - Alternative Ulster
13 - Closed Groove
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4,000 US Combat Deaths, and Just a Handful of Images
Baghdad - The case of a freelance photographer in Iraq who was barred from covering the Marines after he posted photos on the Internet of several of them dead has underscored what some journalists say is a growing effort by the American military to control graphic images from the war. Zoriah Miller, the photographer who took images of marines killed in a June 26 suicide attack and posted them on his Web site, was subsequently forbidden to work in Marine Corps-controlled areas of the country. Maj. Gen. John Kelly, the Marine commander in Iraq, is now seeking to have Mr. Miller barred from all United States military facilities throughout the world. Mr. Miller has since left Iraq.
If the conflict in Vietnam was notable for open access given to journalists - too much, many critics said, as the war played out nightly in bloody newscasts - the Iraq war may mark an opposite extreme: after five years and more than 4,000 American combat deaths, searches and interviews turned up fewer than a half-dozen graphic photographs of dead American soldiers.
It is a complex issue, with competing claims often difficult to weigh in an age of instant communication around the globe via the Internet, in which such images can add to the immediate grief of families and the anger of comrades still in the field.
While the Bush administration faced criticism for overt political manipulation in not permitting photos of flag-draped coffins, the issue is more emotional on the battlefield: local military commanders worry about security in publishing images of the American dead as well as an affront to the dignity of fallen comrades. Most newspapers refuse to publish such pictures as a matter of policy.
But opponents of the war, civil liberties advocates and journalists argue that the public portrayal of the war is being sanitized and that Americans who choose to do so have the right to see - in whatever medium - the human cost of a war that polls consistently show is unpopular with Americans.
Journalists say it is now harder, or harder than in the earlier years, to accompany troops in Iraq on combat missions. Even memorial services for killed soldiers, once routinely open, are increasingly off limits. Detainees were widely photographed in the early years of the war, but the Department of Defense, citing prisoners' rights, has recently stopped that practice as well.
And while publishing photos of American dead is not barred under the "embed" rules in which journalists travel with military units, the Miller case underscores what is apparently one reality of the Iraq war: that doing so, even under the rules, can result in expulsion from covering the war with the military.
"It is absolutely censorship," Mr. Miller said. "I took pictures of something they didn't like, and they removed me. Deciding what I can and cannot document, I don't see a clearer definition of censorship."
The Marine Corps denied it was trying to place limits on the news media and said Mr. Miller broke embed regulations. Security is the issue, officials said.
"Specifically, Mr. Miller provided our enemy with an after-action report on the effectiveness of their attack and on the response procedures of U.S. and Iraqi forces," said Lt. Col. Chris Hughes, a Marine spokesman.
News organizations say that such restrictions are one factor in declining coverage of the war, along with the danger, the high cost to financially ailing media outlets and diminished interest among Americans in following the war. By a recent count, only half a dozen Western photographers were covering a war in which 150,000 American troops are engaged.
In Mr. Miller's case, a senior military official in Baghdad said that while his photographs were still under review, a preliminary assessment showed he had not violated ground rules established by the multinational force command. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation was ongoing, emphasized that Mr. Miller was still credentialed to work in Iraq, though several military officials acknowledged that no military unit would accept him.
Robert H. Reid, the Baghdad bureau chief for The Associated Press, said one major problem was a disconnection between the officials in Washington who created the embed program before the war and the soldiers who must accommodate journalists - and be responsible for their reports afterward.
"I don't think the uniformed military has really bought into the whole embed program," Mr. Reid said.
"During the invasion it got a lot of 'Whoopee, we're kicking their butts'-type of TV coverage," he said.
Now, he said the situation is nuanced and unpredictable. Generally, he said, the access reporters get "very much depends on the local commander." More specifically, he said, "They've always been freaky about bodies."
The facts of the Miller case are not in dispute, only their interpretation.
On the morning of June 26, Mr. Miller, 32, was embedded with Company E of the Second Battalion, Third Marine Regiment in Garma, in Anbar Province. The photographer declined a Marine request to attend a city council meeting, and instead accompanied a unit on foot patrol nearby.
When a suicide bomber detonated his vest inside the council meeting, killing 20 people, including 3 marines, Mr. Miller was one of the first to arrive. His photos show a scene of horror, with body parts littering the ground and heaps of eviscerated corpses. Mr. Miller was able to photograph for less than 10 minutes, he said, before being escorted from the scene.
Mr. Miller said he spent three days on a remote Marine base editing his photos, which he then showed to the Company E marines. When they said they could not identify the dead marines, he believed he was within embed rules, which forbid showing identifiable soldiers killed in action before their families have been notified. According to records Mr. Miller provided, he posted his photos on his Web site the night of June 30, three days after the families had been notified.
The next morning, high-ranking Marine public affairs officers demanded that Mr. Miller remove the photos. When he refused, his embed was terminated. Worry that marines might hurt him was high enough that guards were posted to protect him.
On July 3, Mr. Miller was given a letter signed by General Kelly barring him from Marine installations. The letter said that the journalist violated sections 14 (h) and (o) of the embed rules, which state that no information can be published without approval, including material about "any tactics, techniques and procedures witnessed during operations," or that "provides information on the effectiveness of enemy techniques."
"In disembedding Mr. Miller, the Marines are using a catch-all phrase which could be applied to just about anything a journalist does," said Joel Campagna, Middle East program coordinator for the Committee to Protect Journalists.
New embed rules were adopted in the spring of 2007 that required written permission from wounded soldiers before their image could be used, a near impossibility in the case of badly wounded soldiers, journalists say. While embed restrictions do permit photographs of dead soldiers to be published once family members have been notified, in practice, photographers say, the military has exacted retribution on the rare occasions that such images have appeared. In four out of five cases that The New York Times was able to document, the photographer was immediately kicked out of his or her embed following publication of such photos.
In the first of such incidents, Stefan Zaklin, formerly of the European Pressphoto Agency, was barred from working with an Army unit after he published a photo of a dead Army captain lying in a pool of blood in Falluja in 2004.
Two New York Times journalists were disembedded in January 2007 after the paper published a photo of a mortally wounded soldier. Though the soldier was shot through the head and died hours after the photo was taken, Lt. Gen. Raymond T. Odierno argued that The Times had broken embed rules by not getting written permission from the soldier.
Chris Hondros, of Getty Images, was with an army unit in Tal Afar on Jan. 18, 2005, when soldiers killed the parents of an unarmed Iraqi family. After his photos of their screaming blood-spattered daughter were published around the world, Mr. Hondros was kicked out of his embed (though Mr. Hondros points out that he soon found an embed with a unit in another city).
Increasingly, photographers say the military allows them to embed but keeps them away from combat. Franco Pagetti of the VII Photo Agency said he had been repeatedly thwarted by the military when he tried to get to the front lines.
In April 2008, Mr. Pagetti tried to cover heavy fighting in Baghdad's Sadr City. "The commander there refused to let me in," Mr. Pagetti said. "He said it was unsafe. I know it's unsafe, there's a war going on. It was unsafe when I got to Iraq in 2003, but the military did not stop us from working. Now, they are stopping us from working."
James Lee, a former marine who returned to Iraq as a photographer, was embedded with marines in the spring of 2008 as they headed into battle in the southern port city of Basra in support of Iraqi forces.
"We were within hours of Basra when they told me I had to go back. I was told that General Kelly did not want any Western eyes down there," he said, referring to the same Marine general who barred Mr. Miller.
Military officials stressed that the embed regulations provided only a framework. "There is leeway for commanders to make judgment calls, which is part of what commanders do," said Col. Steve Boylan, the public affairs officer for Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top commander in Iraq. For many in the military, a legal or philosophical debate over press freedom misses the point. Capt. Esteban T. Vickers of the First Regimental Combat Team, who knew two of the marines killed at Garma, said photos of his dead comrades, displayed on the Internet for all to see, desecrated their memory and their sacrifice.
"Mr. Miller's complete lack of respect to these marines, their friends, and families is shameful," Captain Vickers said. "How do we explain to their children or families these disturbing pictures just days after it happened?"
Mr. Miller, who returned to the United States on July 9, expressed surprise that his images had ignited such an uproar.
"The fact that the images I took of the suicide bombing - which are just photographs of something that happens every day all across the country - the fact that these photos have been so incredibly shocking to people, says that whatever they are doing to limit this type of photo getting out, it is working," he said.
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Michael Kamber reported from Baghdad, and Tim Arango from New York.
Calle 13- Residente o Visitante
Calle 13 is a Puerto Rican hip-hop duo formed by two brothers who call themselves Residente (lead singer, writer) and Visitante (pianist, vocals, writer). Their sister (Ileana, aka PG-13) has contributed to several of their songs. They named themselves Calle 13 after the area where they grew up in Trujillo Alto.
The duo rose to fame in 2005 with two back-to-back hits on Puerto Rican radio stations, first one being Se Vale To To and Atrevete-te-Te!. Another song, the controversial Querido FBI, that was not intended to be on their first release was written by the group’s lead singer after the death of Filiberto Ojeda Ríos (leader of Puerto Rican revolutionary group, Los Macheteros). The duo was criticized by those who believed the lyrics promoted violence against the authorities, but the group insisted the song wasn’t meant to be taken literally.
After their rise to fame, the duo was sought by other reggaeton artists, and they collaborated with artists such as Voltio in the song Chulin Culin Chunfly, and with the Three 6 Mafia in the remix, singing or co-writing songs. At the end of 2005, they released their first album, Calle 13, to much critical praise.
In December 2005, the Governor of Puerto Rico, Anibal Acevedo Vilá, admitted to listening to the duo when his son got him some of their songs on his iPod. This prompted him to invite them to La Fortaleza and to have them record a song against shootings bullets in the air during New Years Eve celebrations.
01 Intro
02 Tango Del Pecado
03 La Fokin Moda
04 Sin Exagerar
05 Mala suerte Con el 13
06 Llegale A Mi Guarida
07 Un Beso De Desayuno
08 Uiyi-guaye
09 Algo Con Sentido
10 Me Voy Pal Norte
11 Cumbia De Los Aburridos
12 A Limpiar El Sucio
13 El Avion Se Cae
14 La Crema
15 La Era De La Copiaera
HERE!!!!
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