Post GoatLab Goating

I went to the hospital yesterday to see a consultant to be told that I have got pulsatile tinnitus – where I can hear and kind whooshing of blood in my ear. Sometimes is can be quite loud and irritating. A friend told me that one form of treatment to to have sound at a set frequency to drown out the tinnitus. I guess this is like fighting fire with fire.

Well last night my tinnitus got the crap kicked out of it. No whooshing, all rocking full on sounds instead! I was supposed to wear ear plugs last night to take the edge of the speakers, but I forgot to put them in and instead my ears were treated by a musical barrage of the finest nature for which I am glad to risk impending damage.

Big Joan's set was amazing – the sound resonating across the space. It was an intimate space for such a full sound and it was a joy. Gusset's set was a top mix of tunes that got the crowd bouncing. Jay Nom stormed it. MAIOF rocked out in his own inimitable style. Floorclearer was in top form climbing on the DJ desk to extort the crowd to higher states of metal consciousness with chant's of "Slayer! Slayer! Slayer!" Sickboy and Bong-Ra's Servants of the Apocalypitc Goat Rave was a top piece of gabba-jungle-mash performance. A stunning UK debut for the project. ...and Parasite's set at the end of the night was wikid, wikid!! All in all a good crowd up for it. Special mention to the two guys in goatwear – you guys rock!!!

Forward, fellow goathearders, to the goat future on 1st December!

From the night...
Photos
Gusset's Set

The Flood!

It's out...mmmmmm..the new Big Joan EP on Death$ucker - and it rools! I have had other media/content stuff published before but the couple of hours I spent helping Parasite to do his track on the EP, leading to a credit on the label, well I'm agog. I'm so agag, I'm hot.



See you at the Lab!

Goat Time

Goat Time approaches!!! The first installment of The GoatLab will take place on Friday 29th September at Bristol's notorious Timbuk 2 venue on Small Street.

Heres the full line-up:

Servants Of The Apocalyptic Goat Rave (aka Bong-Ra and Sickboy)
Big Joan (Blood Red Sounds)
DJ Floorclearer (Wrong Music / Death$ucker)
My Ambulance Is On Fire (Noise Terminal One)
Gusset (Death$ucker)
Ironside (P.R.A.N.K / Dissident)
Dub Boy (Ruffnek Diskotek)
Jay Nom (Death$ucker)
Anakissed (anakissed.com)
Parasite (Death$ucker / Peace Off)
Nim Chimpski (Bad Planet / Finga Munkie)

Friday 29th September @ Timbuk2. 10pm - 4am. £5 in fancy goat wear. £6 b4 11pm, £7 after. Tickets are available from DSWAT and DMT Records (Stokes Croft). Full info here.

AND, and, and there is a new goatlab radio online too! Check the Genesis vs. Assdroids at the end.

Global 2 Local News Round-up and Comment

Local TA Called Up to Fight War on Terror (TM)

Territorial Army recruits from Gloucestershire are being called up for duty in Afghanistan. This is on top of 100 TA people being called up from Somerset too. They are to be based in the thick of the insurgency in Helmand province. We’ve had press reports of the ferocity of the fighting and how the US/UK had underestimated the insurgency they are facing. I think there is a huge amount of what is going on there that does not add up. Take the number – a June assessment of the strength of the Taliban’s active fighters by the coalition put them at 2000 to 5000 active fighters. By June the Coalition claimed it had killed 1200. Add into this the big 'Operation Medusa' they have just completed which they say killed 500 militants. So the coalition should have killed between 36% and 90% of the Taliban's fighters – an attrition rate that should see them wiped out shortly. Yet the war grinds on and on without an end in sight. The Soviet war and attempt to re-model Afganistan began in 1979 and ended in defeat in 1989. Ten years.

Also of note that there is no word of civilian casualties in all this? Take this snippit of news that shows the brutal war unfolding;

This week they [US forces] launched a drive in Andar [province], searching houses and raking buildings with helicopter gunship fire into a Taliban compound. At least 35 people died including a mother and two children. "We've warned people they may see soldiers shooting in their villages. I tell them this is the price of peace and freedom," said US commander Lieutenant Colonel Steven Gilbert.

The price of freedom of death – and they wonder why there is a growing insurgency?

"Nobody saw this coming. It's pretty dire," admitted one official in Kabul.

Local MP Opposes Airport Expansion

The MP for where I live, Stephen Williams, is backing the anti-airport expansion. Glad to hear it. I got a thing through the letterbox stating;

"Climate chaos is 'too important to ignore' says Lib Dem MP".

All we need now to stop climate chaos is a miracle! I have been reading Monbiot’s stuff in the guardian and the section on the climate deniers was very interesting. My favourite quote was from a petition that stated;

"We are living in an increasingly lush environment of plants and animals as a result of the carbon dioxide increase. Our children will enjoy an Earth with far more plant and animal life than that with which we now are blessed. This is a wonderful and unexpected gift from the Industrial Revolution."

Not only are they saying that a CO2 increase is not a problem – but that its good for us. Weyhay! Guess who championed this bonkers petition? Yes, the Daily Mail’s Hate correspondent Melanie Phillips. You can’t make it up.

Slayer!!!

My last post is a little depressing, but hey - if you're not pissed off, you're not paying attention. But its Friday, and now its...

Slayer Time!!!

http://leatmosphere.blogspot.com/2006/06/6-6-06.html#links

Live like a m*&therfu*ker!

War on Terror? War on Reason

The war on terror is a dumb ass pile of crap. The reason the Coalition of the Willing invaded Iraq? WMDs – we know that is bunk. Saddam and his evil-doing? Now we get this...

The U.N.’s chief anti-torture expert, Manfred Nowak, says: "The situation is so bad many people say it is worse than it has been in the times of Saddam Hussein." Sectarian violence has filled the Baghdad morgue with bodies bearing evidence of brutal torture.

Yes Tony Bliar, you have made a monumental cock-up in backing Bu$h's oil war. But then what did we expect from a right-wing zealot? Iraq is a mess and it's only going to get worse.

The US Department of Defense has done some opinion polling that indicates that 3/4s of Iraqi Sunnis now support what the Pentagon calls the "insurgency". When the DoD started doing polling on the subject in 2003, they found that 14 percent of Sunni Arabs supported the insurgency. If there are 5 million Sunni Arabs, let us say that 1.5 million are less than 15 years of age. Of the 3.5 million left, half are women and less likely to actually engage in violence, though they might offer support for it. So that is 1.75 million men. At 75%, that is 1.3 million male supporters of the guerrilla movement.

While the war on terror here at home decends into farce...

Lieutenant-Colonel (ret.) Nigel Wylde, a former senior British Army Intelligence Officer, has suggested that the police and government story about the "terror plot" revealed on 10th August was part of a "pattern of lies and deceit."

Tony Bliar, Bu$h and all - you are Assdroids. You need a Nuremberg trial like we need a social revolution.

Living in the Shadow of Bin Laden

Its been five years since the day the towers came down. Since the day Bin Laden set the global agenda and our politicians, for their own twisted reasons, went along. If this was a film script it would go to flash back for five. Flashback to five years ago...

I heard about the first plane from a work colleague who was sat on the desk next to me. It seemed pretty unreal. I checked the net to see what was going down. Breaking news was a plane had hit the world trade centre...

In 2001 incidents of terrorism are running at about 1700 per year, globally.

Camera cuts forward in time to now. It's five years later and we are living in the shadow of Bin Laden. He wanted a war. Bu$h and Bliar gave him three. In Bristol two brave and principled people are awaiting trial for trying to stop war crimes. In Iraq a US armored car pulls the gate from a building and marines pour in searching for terrorists. There is shouting and screaming, children huddle as men are bagged and cuffed and lead off to uncertainty. Those they leave behind choose to join the insurgency.

Flashback to then. As the second plane hits, the net goes down. I can not remember a time then or since that this had happened. At first the BBC site went to a text only version, then that too would go.

Soon after this Bu$h would declare that either you are with him or with the terrorists. Rumsfeld would take the Iraq war plans off the backburner and once more put them into motion. In Afghanistan, Bin Laden would argue with Al-Zarqawi about how the US would respond to his attacks. Al-Zarqawi says they will attack Iraq and set off there to prepare for their coming.

Then; the only news was from the older-school technology of radio and TV. The work colleague who was sat on the desk next to me had Radio 5 Live going on his desk. A US senator suggested that this might be the work of the anti-capitalists. They were blaming a movement I consider myself part of. The lack of hard facts meant that the media began to blur news with speculation into fantasy.

Now – there is a vigil in Bristol each day to protest the wars. This has been going on since they started bombing Afghanistan. In Bristol there are also companies who make missiles that they use in the war on terror. Dick Cheney said that this war would not end in our lifetimes. A forever war. As if to prove this, the war in Afghanistan that we have supposedly won, still rumbles on there with no end in sight. The main casualties are civilians But Bliar and Bu$h don't count them.

Back them – at work we are all watching the TV – stunned by the horror and spectacle of the event. Our boss tells us to get back to work.

Now – the forever war takes in Iraq to sit alongside Afghanistan, Colombia and Palestine in their crusade for enduring freedom. During this war on terror they would use torture, cluster bombs, detention without trial, phosphorus shells, depleted uranium and bomblets. The forces of righteous would deploy the darkness to fight evil.

"The United States military uses another type of bomb, this one 'a terrific weapon' with 'tremendous destructive power,' according to U.S. General Wesley Clark. It is the BLU-82, also known as the 'Daisy Cutter.' This fifteen-thousand-pound bomb, filled with an aqueous mixture of ammonium nitrate, aluminum powder, and polystyrene soap, is so large it can only be launched by rolling it out the rear door of a cargo aircraft, the MC-130 Hercules. The slowness of the cargo plane means Daisy Cutters can only be dropped when there are no defenses, in other words, only on those who are defenseless...A parachute opens, then the Daisy Cutter floats toward the Earth. The parachute slows the descent enough to give the transport plane time to get away before the bomb explodes. The bomb detonates just above ground, producing what are called overpressures of one thousand pounds per square inch (overpressure is air pressure over and above normal air pressure: overpressures of just a few pounds are enough to kill people) disintegrating everything and everyone within hundreds of yards, and killing people (and nonhumans) at a range of up to three miles. General Peter Pace, vice-chair of the U.S. joint chiefs of staff, put the purpose clearly: 'As you would expect, they make a heck of a bang when they go off and the intent is to kill people.' Marine Corps General Trainor was even more specific about the effect of Daisy Cutters on people in Afghanistan: 'Besides the physical degradation, these— along with the regular ordinance dropped from B-52s—provide great psychological punishment, as victims begin to bleed from the eyes, nose, and ears, if they aren’t killed outright, of course. It’s a frightening, awesome assault they’re suffering, and there’s no doubt they’re feeling our wrath.'"

Bu$h says god is not neutral. As we have Daisy Cutters - he must be on our side.

In 2005 incidents of terrorism are running at around 5100 per year. Since that day when Bin Laden killed 2,973 people to set his agenda, the west's fury and blundering would add another 62,006 dead to the tally.

And counting.

Cost of war so far: $313,693,687,636 and counting.

Now – Bliar is mired in a regicide plot for control of the Neo-Labour throne. How else could it have ended? Neo-Labour were built on spin and deception and lies. They lied about Iraq, Afghanistan and terrorism There were no cheering crowds in Iraq – just Al-Zarqawi's network and an insurgency There are no cheering crowds at number 10, just knives hidden in smiles.

Before – A couple of years after 911, I would hold my nose and vote Lib Dem to oust Neo-Labour in the national election. They won in Bristol West. The media, taking their cue from Neo-Labour focus group research said people don't care about the war. I did. In the run up to the largest ever demo sends coach after coach from here to London to say No War. Bliar ignored us. He ignored all of us who said it was a decent into terror. He said history would be his judge. Instead the dead of Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine are his judge. They say, on one count of war crimes; guilty. He does not count them. He only counts the rich and powerful.

Now; I don't want to live in the shadow of Bin Laden. I want to see the sun again. I want us out of Iraq and Afghanistan I want the billions spent on war to go on making poverty history. I want Neo-Labour to consume itself in an orgy of destruction and leave only ashes (epitaph; 'Here lies the Labour Party 1900-2006, an opportunity lost. May future generation learn from our failure.')

I want the court to issue an arrest warrant for Bliar on charges of war crimes. I want Bin Laden caught and put on trial in the Hague. I want the Fairford disarmers to be acquitted and offered the Freedom of the City of Bristol.

I want us to break the cycle of war and destruction that costs so much and offers so little.

I want to be able to spend more time blogging about music and less time writing of death and terror.

I want Bu$h to read Derrek Jensen and weep:

"Even if the primary target of these bombs [daisy cutters] were members of the Afghan military (or terrorists, whatever or whomever they may be) those who were killed were mainly just people trying to survive. 'We were farmers,' said Kamal Hud-din, after American planes made four passes over Kama Ado, his home village, killing more than half of the three hundred people who lived there. 'We were poor people. And we didn’t have any contact with any organizations.' It’s no surprise that people like these—people living in mud huts with straw roofs, using wooden plows to till the soil exactly as their ancestors did—were killed. Colonel John Warden, who planned the air campaign in Iraq, said that dropping any of these bombs I’ve mentioned 'is like shooting skeet. Four hundred and ninety-nine out of five hundred pellets may miss the target, but that’s irrelevant.'

So, who dies? I have seen pictures of the dead, dark-haired children laid out on mattresses, hands folded neatly above the last clothes they will ever wear by parents now standing looking downward, eyes red, in the background. The children's faces are bloated, and red, too, though not from tears but instead from blood which never seems to finally wash away. The parents' hands, too, are red where faint traces of their children’s blood remains."

I want Bill Hicks's second coming to happen now so he can set us on the path to enlightenment.

Migration and the Comming War with Iran

A couple of top articles worth reading;

An amazing article in imigration that looks deep into the comming storm;

"The issue is not securing a broken border any more than the real issue in New Orleans is building a better levee. Storms are rising, and the walls and levees are simply points where we taste their initial force as they move inland....We want an answer, a solution. But there is only this fact: We either find a way to make their world better or they will come to our better world. At the moment, we insist on the wrong answer to the wrong question. And so, the Border Patrol will grow.There will be a wall. Tougher laws will be passed by Congress. And the people will keep coming."

And another pointer to war with Iran;

"In the days, weeks, and months ahead Khuzestan and southern Iraq will come under further focus as British troops mobilize their rapid deployment ground units—the type needed for waging war and invasion—on the Iranian border and a showdown looms ahead between Iran and the United States over the Iranian nuclear energy program and its ultimate fate."

Dark days.

Bu$h Quote Madness

This is a great quote from Bu$h;

“We face an enemy that has an ideology. They believe things. The best way to describe their ideology is to relate to you the fact that they think the opposite of the way we think.”

To me it says; don't think America! Do as your told! They are bad people because I say they are!

It's as if the quote was lifted from Team America.