second floor

excellent npr interview with imran khan (7:53)

All Things Considered, November 12, 2007 · Philanthropist, politician and former cricket superstar Imran Khan has been in hiding since Musharraf declared emergency rule.

But Khan hopes to channel the political anger of thousands of students Wednesday when he emerges from hiding to lead a student rally at Punjab University.

Khan talks with Michele Norris about the rally and his opposition to the current crackdown.

telegraph:

“Pakistan had a traumatic birth because the British left in such haste,” Khan says in a low and measured voice. “Most of us blamed Mountbatten. He rushed it. As a result, the Kashmiri question wasn’t resolved and there has been animosity with our neighbour India ever since.

“Another result was that the state became obsessed with its own survival. Security became the first priority. The emphasis was on armed forces. That was where the arms race began: the race to get nuclear weapons.

“And we became a client state, relying on US aid, rather than being non-aligned like India. It left us with the problem of militancy. The mujahideen, on the Pakistan border with Afghanistan, was actually trained by the CIA during the Cold War. Ronald Reagan said the mujahideen leaders reminded him of the Founding Fathers of America. Now America calls them terrorists.

“The legacy of all this is the war on terror, which many in Pakistan see as a war on Islam, that is why there is no shortage of recruits there.”

I suggest that many in the West cannot understand why Pakistan cannot hunt down the Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters hiding on its border. Khan sighs. “No one in the West understands that the tribal region of Pakistan has always been an independent entity. They have never been conquered. Every man is a warrior and carries a gun. It is the most difficult terrain. Even a superpower like the British Empire could not control that area. They had to bribe the tribes. To think that Pakistan’s army, which begs and borrows for its survival, could control it is naive.”

political wire:

Not surprisingly, a new Norman Lear Center/Zogby poll reveals that America’s entertainment tastes are as polarized as our political views.

A few of the findings:

• Liberals were much more likely than conservatives to listen to commentary and entertainment with which they disagreed philosophically.
• Fox News wins the prize for the most politically divisive TV channel (70% of conservatives watch it daily and only 3% of liberals).
• Over 82% of conservatives say they never watch MTV.
• Cerebral material like documentaries and arts and educational programming all appeal more to liberals… Conservative viewers are more likely to watch action-adventure, sports, and business programming.
• Conservatives are the least likely group to listen to jazz and reggae… Liberals, on the other hand, are more likely than other respondents to enjoy almost every music genre.

the newest pbw podcast (32:43 mp3) features snippets from the upcoming stones throw helmed nba 2k8 soundtrack. features the recently formed supreme team (madlib & karriem riggins), kweli & tip, and mf doom over a dilla production, among others. the supreme track track is beautifully funky & raw. check it out.

update: new interview with karriem riggins

Scheme: How long have you been emceeing and were you at any point intimidated by it?

Karriem Riggins: I do so much it’s kind of hard to stay on one thing because I’m always doing everything. Common would be working on his album and I would come up with a chant or something, recently I started writing to whatever beat that inspires me and I got a lot of rhymes man (laughs). I met up with Madlib and he gave me 7 beat cd’s with 50 beats on each. So we decided to do that album together and we have five albums in the can. We have five jazz albums and we’re trying to finish the Supreme Team album. Madlib and I actually have a jazz group call the Jahari Masamba Unit and it’s coming out on Stones Throw.

podcast tracklist after the jump:

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