Clowntime is Over I wonder how much time and money it's taken for these clowns to parade around south asia spouting stuff about

The opportunity for Muslims to see "American values in action" is a welcome byproduct, he said. "The United States is responding the way it is because this is a human catastrophe," the secretary said at a news conference after his arrival in Jakarta, Indonesia Tuesday. "but I think it does give the Muslim world -- and the rest of the world -- an opportunity to see American generosity, American values in action, where we care about the dignity of every individual and the worth of every individual.

whilst the rest of the world seems willing to help unconditionally, to the US administration it's become a political opportunity, and little else. Was there any real need for bro Jeb and poor old Colin (who's become little more than a comi-tragic figure since he was caught lying to the UN in February, 2003) to fly in to grandstand over the suffering and deaths of hundreds of thousands. Slow to react, until it seemed he had to to save face, that Bush et al have seen the bright side of this is somehow predicable, and, if it wasn't for the horror of it all, there would be some sort of bizarre comedy in their behaviour. but there isn't..... what the US miliary is doing in Aceh is amazing and the generosity of it's citizens, wonderful, but the attempts by the US government to put a tag on it's aid is shameful. Then again what else would you expect.

When do the helicopters leave the roof? Vanity Fair's James Wolcott posted this rather depressing piece about a recent story in The Economist on his blog...

"[W]hen America's well-drilled and well-fed fighters attempt subtler tasks than killing people, problems arise." Their contempt for Iraqis is undisguised and dramatically expressed: a soldier, confronted by "jeering schoolchildren," fires canisters of buckshot from his grenade-launcher at them, and marines busting down doors in Ramadi scream at trembling middle-aged women: "Bitch, where's the guns?"

and

There's a Peter Cook-Dudley Moore routine, one of their woolgathering dialogues, where Dud asks Pete, "So would you say you've learned from your mistakes?" and Pete replies: "Oh yes, I'm certain I could repeat them exactly."

That seems to have been the Bush administration's approach to Iraq. Take the mistakes of Vietnam and repeat them exactly.

And at that you can't say they haven't succeeded.

Onward Christian Soldiers Whoaaa, this is very scary stuff......

he's still with us...Lovina, Bali, July 2004 (taken by me)

I guess I'm a bit remiss in not plugging the recent compilation I did for NZ Fashion Week 2004, Off The Cuff. The brief was fairly simple- to create an album of NZ music that fitted with the style of fashion week, and I was only limited by the necessity of having to include a few tracks owned by Antenna (who put out the resulting album)...but that was not a problem as I would've included a couple of those anyone. The idea was to try to create a flow, starting with the Nathan Haines & Joost Laneveld track "Avenue Dreams", recorded on a cassette in New York City in the mid nineties but overdubbed at Uptown by Alan Jansson, and only released briefly in NZ on a bonus disc; finishing with the extremely edgy but magnificent "Let it Go" from Concord Dawn, NZ's biggest selling electronic artist. In between you get exclusive tracks and remixes from the likes of Rob Salmon, Tomorrowpeople and Greg Churchill amongst others. I also threw in a few tracks I like which need more attention from the likes of Soane & Dub Asylum.

I was also keen to illustrate the music coming out of New Zealand that really is going around the world, and largely ignored by the mainstream media and the sad excuse for an electronica award that the Tuis present (I mean....Salmonella Dub? Best Dance album?...sorry but unwashed UB40 is not even eligible). There you go....shameless plug over