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Paul Bremer, the preppy mountebank/stooge who headed the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq, is currently enjoying being back in the comfort and safety of America and "working on a book" about his adventures. Awww, isn't that special. When finished it will no doubt be accorded respectful consideration by the media, but the man should probably be clapped in irons along with the rest of his hopefully soon-to-be-incarcerated Washington handlers. Today in Iraq has a good summary of his doings and failings:
After the fall of Baghdad, the Office for Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance was established under Lieutenant General Jay Garner to administer postwar Iraq. OHRA was staffed by many of the Middle-East experts from the [State Dept.'s] former Future of Iraq Project. Garner wanted to quickly establish an Iraqi civil government through elections while Rummy and the neo-cons insisted on de-Ba'athification. When Garner refused to comply, Rummy fired him and disbanded the ORHA, and replaced it with the Coalition Provisional Authority which recruited ideologically-pure rookies and rubes from the Heritage Foundation. Garner himself was replaced by Baghdad fashion maven and incompetent administrator L. Paul Bremer.
Bremer disbanded the Iraqi Army and established the Iraqi Governing Council, which was composed mostly of former exiles with little political support within Iraq, but having close connections to the neo-cons in Rummy's Defense Department. Among the accomplishments of the IGC were choosing a new Iraqi flag (which went over like a fart in the mosque) replacing secular family law with Sharia family law, and banning newspapers and television stations deemed unsupportive of the occupation.
Meanwhile, Bremer and the CPA was mismanaging Iraq's reconstruction (when they weren't busy establishing Baghdad chapter of the Optimists Club.) They awarded contracts to American firms and publicly announced a policy of blackballing companies from countries that had not supported the war, while CPA Order 17 granted immunity to all foreign firms from Iraqi civil and criminal law. Contractors working for the CPA were exempt from taxes and tariffs that gave domestic Iraqi businesses a competitive advantage over large foreign contractors were lifted.
This was all part of an effort to reshape Iraq's economy from a centrally-planned economy to a neo-con ideologically-approved economy friendly to foreign investors and against the interests of the Iraqi population. CPA orders reversed Iraqi law to allow unlimited and unrestricted foreign investment, and removed limits on the expatriation of profits.
Bremer's CPA was also responsible for managing two reconstruction funds. One was the former UN Oil-For-Food Fund, which was re-named the Development Fund for Iraq and raised about 20 billion dollars in 2003 from foreign donors and oil revenue. The other was the Iraqi Relief and Reconstruction Fund, which consisted of 18 billion dollars appropriated by the US Congress.
DFI funds were supposed to be disbursed by the CPA with oversight from the International Advisory and Monitoring Board, an organization established [by] the United Nations when the CPA assumed control of the former UN Oil-For-Food Program. Funds were supposed to be transparently disbursed under IAMB oversight with Iraqi input on spending priorities. To meet these requirements, the CPA established an internal Program Review Board, consisting of ten CPA staffers and one member of the IGC.
By the end of the CPA's lifespan in June 2004, they had spent $19.1 billion of the DFI funds but only $400 million of IRRF funds. The IAMB, in an effort to discover where all the DFI money went appointed the accounting firm KPMG to audit spending by the CPA's Program Review Board. The audit found that PRB minutes failed to record why expenditures were approved [or] who approved them, [that] attendance was not recorded, [that] expenditures were made without meeting quorums, [and that] expenditures were made by Bremer and other CPA staffers without PRB approval. The audit also discovered the CPA had shipped Iraqi oil through unmetered pipelines, meaning there was no way to determine the amount of Iraqi oil the CPA had sold or where it actually went. A later US Congressional report documented many more instances of fraud, waste and abuse of DFI funds.
The CPA was disbanded on June 28th 2004, when Bremer cut and ran back to the United States. Oil and electricity production remained below pre-war levels, water and sanitation systems were breaking down, food and fuel distribution was increasingly difficult and unemployment was estimated at 35%.
In 2005, George W. Bush awarded Bremer the Medal of Freedom for his performance in Iraq.
Journalist Nick Turse has compiled a list of government employees who have been fired or resigned as a result of Bush administration policies. Tomdispatch, which published it, refers to it as a "memorial wall," similar to those springing up around the country to honor the Iraq war dead. Maybe that association is a bit casual, since these people still have their lives, but the list provides a sobering rundown of the scary-bad things that have happened since the Bush Putsch of 2000, on the environmental, national security, and economic fronts. (It may not seem scary to you now but wait a few years.) Tribute should be paid to these people whose careers were wrecked by speaking out, as opposed to what actually happened: as the departures were announced in a steady trickle since the beginning of the Reich, the national media (not heroes) enabled the Bushites by marginalizing or actively sliming these exercisers of conscience.
"Lysergic Interlude (Ice Cream Dude Sells E)" [mp3 removed]. The drums are 808 samples and the song incorporates a longish acid house break. The schizo title reflects my current ambivalence between art and street, I guess. Nice quote from 808 State liner notes ca 1999: "The injustice, if you're looking for it, is that out of the whole Manchester scene of [the late '80s], the Inspiral Carpets and the Stone Roses are seen as history's heroes. All the while, Gerald's "Voodoo Ray" and 808 State's Newbuild were championing a whole new way of making music, a music that had no reference and didn't need or want anything to do with guitars (Richard Hector Jones)." Been looking for a Brendan M. Gillen quote to the same effect--that the 808 drum machine was a paradigmatic instrument like the electric guitar. If only it were true. Pop culture is still addicted to the angry skronk of guitar feedback as the numero uno indicia of (commodified) rebellion, while the 808 has lapsed back to cult status, post the rave era.
SCREENFULL has been inactive for a while but jimpunk has a new interactive piece: "Joseph.Beuys - JA JA JA JA JA NEE NEE NEE NEE NEE - AsCii Sound rem:x - #1 - 20051013-12:04." A shamanistic utterance by Beuys--not familiar with the clip--is given the Steve Reich "Come Out" treatment in three dimensions, the dimensions being height, width, and time. The sound bites overlap, go out of phase, and echo as you move a cursor around an ASCII Beuys image--kind of a speak and spell granular sampler. Subject to the usual gripes about making art based on the work of famous cult artists, checking it out is recommended. How's that for passive construction to avoid the self-absorbed sounding first person?
Everyone's eagerly awaiting the report from the Plamegate prosecutor but color me pessimistic. Not that there won't be indictments but that nothing will change. Tom Delay is still running the House despite "stepping aside" as House maj. leader because the Republicans are addicted to his corrupt money spigot. He just got an egregious oil company subsidy passed with the same arm-twisting, rule-flouting tactics he used before his indictments, and is doing everything in his power to break Ronnie Earle, the brave public servant in Austin who stood up to him. Expect the tarring of Patrick Fitzgerald to begin if he indicts Rove and Co., and don't expect Mr. No Neck Baby Face Slimemeister to stop advising Bush. Our Congress is so weak and hooked on corporate money that they're waiting for these prosecutors to do what all of them should have done years ago, which is bring these bastards down.
Posting has been a bit sluggish as I move the music production up another level with the acquisition of a laptop (no!) and MOTU audio interface. Thanks to all who have been listening. With the second PC I will be able to record multitrack in real time with a couple of outboard instruments (at least in theory). I've had the capability to do it with one computer, but with my CPU maxing out on the production end, I want to try recording elsewhere. I ruled out a hardware multitrack recorder in favor of doing as much as possible in the computer. I don't really need the outboard gear but the Sidstation adds a definite crackly aura and I've been hankering to play around with an analog drum machine.
I'm also having to contend for the first time with "mouse arm." I went through a couple of rounds of RSI from typing and drawing and thought I had it licked, but the music introduces a whole new set of muscles to fuck up. Fortunately I'm ambidextrous when it comes to clicking little squares so I can spread the stress around. It was turning the virtual knobs that was getting me--I'm too lazy and/or impulsive to permanently assign controllers to real knobs. Sorry for the medical report but I offer it as a word of caution to computer-using musicians who haven't come up against this. Take breaks, stretch, switch arms.
current mood:
awakecurrent music: ectomorph, first ep; morton subotnick, touch; plaid, "chirpy"; sun ra, it's after the end of the world ("don't you know that yet?"); schlammpeitziger spacerokkmountainrutschquartier; ebe, "the drifting"; antonelli electr, "anti-establishment"; aux 88, electroboogie; nitzer ebb," join in the chant"; paul mccartney ram (don't laugh, there's some great brian wilsonian songs here, and besides, i'm studying multitracking). more as i remember what i've been playing.
more on mccartney: forget the pretentious john, sir paul is the best beatle. a melody machine, and so understated and intuitive in his intellect compared to mr. i'm a sodding artist. "mother nature's child"--brilliant and banal, hemingwayesque in its denial of crisis, proto-jeff koons; it's pure songstery joy with all those do do doos and wa wa waas but how could it possibly be on the level? according to mccartney's autobiography a few years back, he was the one experimenting with tape loops, introducing them on "tomorrow never knows" and pushing forward with sonic experimentation in "revolution 9." i believe it! there's a long passage in the book where he describes watching richard hamilton assemble the photos for the white album poster, the curiosity about and reverence for visual art there is palpable. and the brian wilson friendship/rivalry is fascinating--talent knows talent. sir paul, yeah! enough with the john john john all the time.
Granola, 1996-7, photocopies collaged on unfolded granola boxes, approx. 60" x 40". Scan of polaroid. Stuff keeps turning up that I never showed, but still get all nostalgic about. Whether I actually consumed this cereal will remain a mystery. Also tagged with (mostly) molecular imagery and unshown are a saltine box, packaging for Folger's "coffee teabags" (a brilliant idea), and a cardboard sleeve for shower curtain rings.