The funkiest R & B group ever next to Parliament,  The Gap Band with "Outstanding" 

Joanne Herring, a Houston socialite, political activist and friend of congressman Charlie Wilson, encourages him to take a greater interest in the war in Afghanistan and later arranges a meeting between he and the Prime Minister of Pakistan.  It's here that Wilson realizes Afghanistan's dire need for sufficient weaponry and the extent of brutality the Soviet Army is inflicting on innocent civilians.  We also learn that the United States Government is intentionally taking a low budget approach to the  war in hopes of "bleeding" the Soviet Union dry (drawing out their last weapon).  Returning to Washington, DC frustrated and determined, Charlie meets Gust Avrakotos, a member of the CIA assigned to the understaffed force (not surprisingly) tasked with developing a strategy for Afghanistan to beat the communists.  

And together they fight.  With the political connections of Joanne Herring and the brilliant mind of Gust Avrakotos, Charlie Wilson garners support from Israel and Saudia Arabia and cuts through the red tape of Washington inch by inch.  With a final budget of over $1 billion, Wilson supplies the dedicated soldiers of Afghanistan with enough weapons and training to cripple the Soviet Union at an alarming rate.  By war's end, the Texan hero had contributed to a significant piece of our U.S. foreign policy, the Reagan Doctrine. The film depicts this pivotal, yet concealed moment in our recent history with real fact, even when it's not so pretty, and it portrays its characters fondly with authenticity and great dialogue.  If you ever want to meet Charlie Wilson, this movie is an excellent way to do it.

It's that kind of world now, I guess. But how much worse it must feel to be American, and look around and see Americans, born and raised, who praise Republican godfathers like Reagan, without the basic knowledge about their recent past regarding the Cold War, which was supposed to have been won by the United States. Why then is the Bush administration scolding Russia and drawing comparisons to 68? Reagan "fixed" all that, which is what Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh make a living broadcasting to a big segment of the public willing to stomach it.

Charlie Wilson ['Charlie Wilson's Peace'] has published an op-ed shaming the United States for boasting about winning the Cold War, after abandoning its due responsibilities as "victors." He cites the lack of US financial support for re-building and re-stabilizing (whatever murky things that may entail) Afghanistan. He's right in stating that those mistakes have cost us the two wars right now. It's an obvious connection, but a third war, the one taking place is Russia, has allowed those embarrassing details to fully emerge.

He points out the problem with over-funding military and defense, while discounting the "critical elements of our foreign policy." He's right. In that same paragraph, he subtly implies the bloody currency we pay by depending on our military to set these affairs straight. It's a courageous message, but people from the past must come forward and offer their experience and reflections to help resolve these problems, rather than wait for the policy disasters to hatch themselves as they have with Iraq, because trouble with Iran is brewing, whether it is in the form of war or not..

"We should be led by Osama bin Laden...I mean Obama and Biden."

-Charlie Wilson

1st Pic: Cassie - Over It (Prod. by The Underdogs)

 Cassie is hitting us with another dance track called "Over It"! Recent allegations of Cassie F*cking For Money is not stopping her at all. Cassie is in the studio working hard to put out a great album. Cassie is too classy to perform non-sense like that for money. We will see how well Cassie does with the new upcoming album coming out in stores very soon. This track is not bad at all and it is definitely something to bounce to. Look out for that "Official Girl" single! Hott!

2nd Pic: Cassie - My House

Cassie let's us hear the sweet seductions of "My House"! The song is not bad at all and is very sexy, if we may add. Unfortunately, it is not her best. From the sounds of it, we are thinking that maybe "Danjahandz" produce this track. Not really sure at the moment but we will have to give this a C+. Keep it up Cassie! 

Charlie Wilson feat. Diddy (Prod. By The Underdogs) - Need A Wife 

Well, we guess it doesn't matter at what age you decided to marry. Charlie Wilson is letting us know that he is looking for a "Wife". Not sure if this is a good look for Sir Charlie. To sing about getting and/or having a wifey, at the tender age of...hmmm...we don't know. Could he be like close to 57 Y.O. right now?? We love you Diddy but Charlie, No Sir. Put this one back....ASAP. 

Busta Rhymes - Packin' Them Things

You have to love the lyricist flow of Busta Rhymes! Busta can flow over any track with eyes closed and his hands tied behind his back. We are hoping this is a new track on his upcoming album. Hot 'ish Busta! Stay tuned because the King Of Rap is back! 

Omarion - Vroom (Prod. By J.R. Rotem)

Omarion is back! Is this a comeback from the young "King Of Dance"? We will see! The track is not bad at all, but can we please get some versatility in some of this music. We are so tired of hearing songs that sound so much alike. Its not like we haven't heard anything like it. Omary! You gotta come better! 

Pleasure P feat. Rico - Sayin' My Name (Prod. by Dre & Vidal)

Pleasure is back and solo with a new joint called "Sayin' My Name". Rumors are still floating, as to why he left "Pretty Ricky". How much success will he obtain as a solo artist? Hmmm...not sure. It's very hard out there floating on your own. Not a bad track from the ex-Pretty Ricky member, produced by Dre & Vidal.

Stay Fly!

Taken from the "Gap Band IV" album.

It is true. In the 11 years after Zia executed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, the dictator's superstitious paranoia became fully justified. To know him was to fear and hate him. There were many willing assassins.

Hanif, who graduated as a pilot from Pakistan's Air Force Academy but now lives in relative safety as the head of the BBC's Urdu service in London, seeks to reveal in fiction the possible identity of Zia's killer and has great fun doing so.

What caused Pak One, Zia's C-130 cargo plane, to crash in the desert near Bahawalpur, killing him, his general staff and the US ambassador, after a farcical demonstration of newly donated American tanks and a big Fourth of July party? Should the CIA be blamed? It usually is.

Did the pilots succumb to VX gas in the plane's ventilation system? Did a blind woman prisoner of the regime fatally curse the president? Was a crow responsible, blundering into an engine? Or did a case of mangoes, presented to Zia by the Left-wing Pakistan Mango Farmers Cooperative, contain explosives?

Did General Akhtar, resentful because Zia had promoted him away from command of Inter-Services Intelligence, know what was going to happen, but did not warn his chief, and yet, perversely loyal, stayed by his side to the end? The motives and chances remain inextricable.

Hanif's depiction of the life of a Pakistani air cadet might be a caricature, but probably isn't an unduly grotesque one. The narrator of the novel, Under Officer Ali Shigri, conjures up the authentic smell of military discipline.

Hanif displays the universal sameness of militarism at its most virulent, citing, for example, "weird US military-speak", the use of torture to aid interrogation, and expenditure of vast sums of money to make the world a more dangerous place.

The Pakistani saluting style is very Sandhurst, but the only military progress in Pakistan, according to Hanif/Shigri, is that the generals grow fatter and have more medals: "The 40th Independence Day medal. The Squadron Anniversary medal. Today-I-did-not-jerk-off medal... One for organising a squash tournament, another for the great battle that was tree-planting week." Shigri's squadron leader went on "a freebie to Mecca and is wearing a hajj medal too".

Zia consults the Koran every morning as his personal horoscope, while Shigri and his friend, Under Officer Obaid-ul-llah, derive intellectual stimulus from the condensed version of Escape from Colditz in Reader's Digest and surrogate sex from Playboy.

The two cadets are so close that when Obaid disappears from the barracks and a plane goes missing, the authorities assume that Shigri is in collusion with him. Shigri claims ignorance and is cast into a dungeon in the Mughals' 16th-century Lahore Fort.

He communicates with the prisoner next door, the secretary general of the All Pakistan Sweepers Union, who exerts significant influence on the mango farmers and was behind the failed plan to put a bomb in the gutter that Zia was scheduled to sweep to inaugurate National Cleanliness Week.

Shigri is mysteriously pardoned and welcomed to freedom, perhaps because his father was a celebrated colonel who frequently penetrated deep into Afghan territory and handled large numbers of dollars.

Hanif acknowledges Charlie Wilson's War and uses it to good effect, reporting Zia's visit to Congressman Wilson's constituency in Texas. Zia was one of the principal opportunists and heroes of the Cold War, serving as a conduit for billions of dollars of covert aid to the mujahedin in their victorious campaign against the Soviet invasion.

"Thank you for your honesty.

we share a trust level well short of that of mechanics, stockbrokers, real estate and insurance agents. This information should be a wake up call.

Only a few in our profession are this honest and candid. On another blog on this site I have mentioned & commented on some scandals. They are the result of the sins of more than a few. Let it be known that inspite of some blogs and comments that are tough, I have withheld information from the media on these events. Instead I have called on Leaders in the Funeral Industry to be honest. You sir are a part of the city set on the hill.

Your ethics are appreciated. I love helping famulies and for that reason I wrote a new book called Rest in Peace. In this work I declare that there are honest ethical funeral directors like yourself who are willing to embrace the changes that are to come!"

It is my hope that the IFDA will embrace ethics and honesty. Right now I just find myself too busy helping folks lower the cost of their funerals...to keep up with this. The IFDA knows the changes that are comng.

To the IFDA I Wish you the best. There will be blogs here from time to time as things become public on the IFDA Funeral cost issue and the "IFDA Preneed Trust." The IFDA has had it's wake up call.

Recently in Illinois the Illinois Funeral Director's association lost 40 million dollars out of the IFDA Preneed Trust Fund.One newspaper covered this in one article. A 40 million dollar loss contributes to the funeral director bad guy image. The IFDA is close to all the Funeral Homes in the State of Illinois participating in the IFDA Preneed Trust Scandal. This is truly sad and the details can be called horrific.

It is quite simple really. The media needs the Funeral Director to sell it's product. The main media that Funeral Director's help sell is the newspaper through the obituary, obituaries. Sadly both the newspaper and the traditional funeral director are dying...both are having to change or lose it all.

The focus on the Funeral Industry needs to be the 21st century. The focus needs to be on the future and not so much the past. Gary Laderman's book Rest in Peace, is on the 20th century. Surely there needs to be a focus on a 21st Century Rest in Peace.

Find out more here:

More information can be found here including average funeral cost.:

Rest in Peace: Insider’s Tips to the Low Cost Less Stress Funeral by R Brian Burkhardt and Matt Bacak. #1 International Best Selling Author Jason Oman also gave thumbs up to this book. This book is published by Morgan James Publishing.

Your Funeral Guy, R Brian Burkhardt, Funeral Director, Author, Blogger, State of Illinois

Who on their board have they loaned money to? The IFDA (Illinois Funeral Director's Association )has admitted to this.

Geoffrey W. Hurd, the recent IFDA President has written a letter about this. You can view it here:

http://www.ifda.org/trustupdate.html

The IFDA has not told what happened to the first new Trustee!

State Senator Randall Hultgren of the State of Illinois has also refused to tell us where the IFDA Preneed Trust 40 Million dollars went. We need to know what happened to the people's Funeral Cost money.

More information can be found here:

Rest in Peace: Insider’s Tips to the Low Cost Less Stress Funeral by R Brian Burkhardt and Matt Bacak. #1 International Best Selling Author Jason Oman also gave thumbs up to this book.

Your Funeral Guy, R Brian Burkhardt, Funeral Director, Author, Blogger, State of Illinois

WE STIll do not where the money went!

Here is the quote about the new potential a company that has been involved with quite a few scandals of it's own! Note this is not the Company previously announced!

A quote on IFDA's new explanation of the preneed trust is here.

" Iam very pleased to share with you good news from IFDA.

With the approval of state regulators, Merrill Lynch Bank & Trust Co. FSB, ( a wholly-owned subsidiary of Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc.) through its trust division, Merrill Lynch Trust Company ("MLTC"), has agreed to become Trustee of the IFDA Preneed Trust on a temporary basis. A highly respected trust company with personal trust assets under administration in excess of $20 billion, MLTC is regulated by the U.S. Department of the Treasury Office of Thrift Supervision. This means after two years of intense work and negotiations, the regulatory timeline mandated for IFDA to find a trustee has been achieved."

You can find the full quote from outgoing President Geoffrey Hurd here:

http://www.ifda.org/trustupdate.html

It still remains an unwise choice to use IFDA trust insurance.

What happened to the previous company that was going to handle the trust?

Why are political leaders silent on this?

More information can be found here including political silence & average funeral cost.:

Rest in Peace: Insider’s Tips to the Low Cost Less Stress Funeral by R Brian Burkhardt and Matt Bacak. #1 International Best Selling Author Jason Oman also gave thumbs up to this book. This book is published by Morgan James Publishing.

Your Funeral Guy, R Brian Burkhardt, Funeral Director, Author, Blogger, State of Illinois

Charlie Wilson for those who don't know him, was a "Good Time Charlie" kinda guy.

A Congressman from Texas, Charlie happened to sit on the House Appropriations committee in the 1980s. He is credited with nearly single handedly delivering the defeat the Russian Army suffered in Afghanistan.

The turning point for Charlie came when he went to Afghanistan and looked into the eyes of children whose hands, arms and legs had been blown off when they saw something shiny on the ground, and like any curious child, bent to pick it up.

How could they know that the shiny object they were drawn to pick up was part of a cluster bomb?

Every year in dozens of countries, thousands of tiny hands reach out to pick up shiny bits of metal on the ground, only to suffer a horrible and irrevocable consequence.

Jody Williams won a Nobel Prize for her campaign to ban land mines. But the work is far from over.

There are many efforts underway to ban the manufacture of cluster bombs. There is a treaty being negotiated this month among 116 countries but there are pressures to weaken the provisions.

Any argument affirming the need make and deploy these types of munitions is defended by a torturous logic. A logic that can not be defended when confronted by the reality of a three year old who has lost an arm, a leg, any eye or worse. 

If this is an issue about which you are concerned and you'd like to add your voice to growing chorus of those calling for protection of the rights of children you can learn more and sign a petition here.

And next time you watch a three year old bend down to pick up something shiny, pray that it is only a gum wrapper.

En quinze années de carrière, jamais la popularité des UGK n’a décru. Au contraire, leur cote n’a eu de cesse de grimper en notoriété en partie grâce à Bun B qui a bravement porté l’étendard pendant que son ami Pimp C était incarcéré depuis 2001. Libéré sur parole fin Décembre 2005, Pimp C a revêtu son manteau de fourrure et ses chaînes en platine pour enregistrer son double-album Pimpalation en 2006, tandis que Bun B poursuivait sans interruption ses apparitions en featuring. On se souvient bien aussi du coup de gueule de Pimp C sur Hot 97, quand il en a foutu plein la tronche aux Lil Flip, Ne-Yo, Russell Simmons, Ne-Yo, Pharrell, Mike Jones, Young Jeezy,... allant jusqu’à considérer qu’Atlanta ne fait pas partie du Dirty South sous prétexte que la ville n'est pas sur le même fuseau horaire que Houston. Bien que les réactions à chaud furent vives, les victimes concernées n’ont pas osé lui répondre tellement il est "vrai", rendu intouchable par le respect sans faille qu'il inspire. Dans cette lancée, un nouvel album des UGK, le premier depuis Dirty Money en 2001, s’annonçait comme inévitable et colossale, une réunion au sommet de la gloire. Pour ce faire, les UGK ont mis les bouchées doubles pour réaliser une œuvre à la mesure de leur réputation, à la hauteur de leur statut de légendes vivantes de Houston, le double-album Underground Kingz. 

En deux CDs de treize pistes chacun (à vous de faire la multiplication), le duo charismatique nous offre un contenu solide, un concentré de hip-hop texan (co-)produit par Pimp C lui-même sur une bonne partie. Il est important de la signaler car peu de gens savent qu’il est un bon producteur, avec un style de prod assez funky. Avec des morceaux de la consistance de « The Game Belongs To Me » et « Undergroung Kingz », lui et Bun B se partagent à eux deux un trône qu’ils ne sont pas prêts de léguer à qui que ce soit. Les UGK ne sont pas dans le rap game pour faire les fines bouches, ils parviennent à faire plier n’importe quel aspirant rien qu’avec le poids imposant de l’aura qu’ils ont étendu au fil d’années de travail. Toute résistance est inutile, ils se permettent de toiser les belliqueux s’approchant de leurs territoires comme des détracteurs qui dénigrent stérilement le Dirty South, leur message est pourtant clair : « Quit Hatin’ the South’ » (feat Charlie Wilson et Willie D des mythiques Geto Boys). Leur chemin est passé sans embûches par les tapis rouges des Grammy Awards, le superbe « Int’l Anthem » avec les Outkast et produit par DJ Paul & Juicy J des Three 6 Mafia (samplant un standard de la soul, « I Choose You » de Willie Hutch) s’est en effet vu nominé dans la catégorie Best Rap Performance, mais n’a pas malheureusement pas reçu le victorieux trophée. Pas grave, ça ne rendra pas leur couronne plus étincelante qu’elle ne l’est déjà, les UGK continuent à « Still Ridin’ Dirty » avec le vrai king of the south légitime, Scarface. 

Parmi les nombreux invités conviés sur cet édifice, le boss de Miami Rick Ross a flairé la poudre de « Cocaine », Too Short vient revisiter « Life Is » en prenant un temps d’avance (« Life is 2009 ») et Talib Kweli apporte sa bonne conscience sur « Real Woman », un titre bien smooth exempt de misogynie, emmené par le crooner de ces dames, Raheem DeVaughn. Underground Kingz est aussi le théâtre de coopérations insoupçonnées mais ô combien valorisantes, que ce soit avec l’anglais Dizzee Rascal sur « Two Types of Bitches » ou le tandem Kool G Rap/Big Daddy  Kane sur « Next Up », pour un dépoussiérage de « The Symphony » du Juice Crew orchestré par Marley Marl. Pareil pour les producteurs, qui leur sont entièrement dévoués. Jazze Pha ramène sa garniture habituelle (« Stop-N-Go »), il faut compter sur The Runners pour livrer un instru statutaire (« Take The Hood Back » feat Slim Thug, MDDL Fingaz et Sid Vicious)  et Lil Jon qui donne un coup de crunk sur « Like That », à moins que vous préféreriez le remix de Pimp C. 

Au bout de cette voie royale, au prix de nombreux sacrifices, la consécration pour les UGK les attendait avec cet ultime album éponyme, qui s’est pointé au top des charts américain la semaine de sa sortie et leur a offert un disque d’or amplement mérité. À l’heure qu’il est, les aficionados du son du Sud s’accordent à dire que Underground Kingz est déjà un classique sudiste, assurément l’une des meilleures sorties Dirty South de 2007. Une nouvelle référence en matière de rap sudiste parfaitement indispensable. Les Kings de l’Underground pour la vie, et dans la mort, qui a fauché sans prévenir Pimp C un soir de Décembre… Triste ironie du sort lorsqu’on se passe maintenant « Heaven » et « Trill Niggaz Don’t Die ».

(chronique écrite le 11 Août 2008 )