Anyone who thinks they have all the Answers before they've even heard the Question - is Dangerously Deluded! Real Truth Requires Vigilance, Perseverance and Courage, regardless of Party and who wields Power. Left, Right, Center, Corporations, Government, Unions, Criminals or the Indifferent.
Number #9 in the Electric Purgatory Series is the debut video by the band Super 8 featuring Bronx Style Bob Khaleel. Prior to putting together this Pearl Jam influenced Alt-Rock outfit, Bob had actually been a successful rapper releasing a solo Hip Hop album. Guess who knows how to do a who lot more than sling rhymes?
I have to say, the Super 8 CD - well over ten years after it's release - remains one of my favorites. Songs like "Mountain", "Pain", "Fire" and "Pills" had a rare level of passion and performance that I really haven't heard since, but it was the song "April 19th" which was either inspired by the destruction of Branch Dividian Compound in Waco, the bombing of the Murrah Federal Building - both of which occured on April the 19th, Hitler's Birthday - is an eerily haunting track, that sticks in your mind no matter how you might try to shake it off.
I saw the television - saw what the pictures told me I stood in captivation - I felt a cold that almost burned How often people can be found - the hate that lurks beneath the skin It never really matters, too busy living you're hectic life But if it's you're child or you're wife, there's no exception close to home Can you help those that you're leaving somewhere out there all alone?
Unfortunately "King of the World" was the only Video they ever made before Hollywood Records yanked the plug on the band. But they did get some touring experiences in and here's a bit of their song "Natural" Live.
Amazingly some copies of this album are still available on Amazon. After the group disbanded Bob continued his collaboration with Super 8 guitarist John O'Brien and released the solo cd "People Watching" under the name Khaleel in 1999. (Also available via Amazon)
Skindred is a band, with lead singer Benji Webbe, that has managed to follow behind the trail blazed by The Untouchables, Fishbone and 311 to blend together Ska/Reggae/Dancehall rythms with the tone and Energy of Hardcore Punk and Metal to scoring a #1 Hit on the Top Reggae Charts with their first album Babylon.
I've never had a chance to see them live, but their recordings are pretty impressive - this aint your mama's Bob Marley Mon.
This week Pat Buchanan wrote an Op-ed and made an appearance on Rachel Maddow where he argued vehemently that White People need to Rise UP against the "Evil of Affirmative Action and Reverse Discrimination."
Contrary to many progressives I don't think Maddow won this fight because nearly everything Pat said was flat-out wrong and she let it go by without correcting him.
First of all there's the claim, or view, that Sotomayor's Scholarship to Princeton wasn't deserved, when the fact is she graduated from a prestigious private Catholic High School Cardinal Spellman, as Valedictorian.
That means she was TOP OF HER CLASS PAT!
But that still doesn't mean that her grades or test scores were the best in the country largely because of different schools have different courses available - and AP (or College-Level) class get the student Bonus points.
For example many students applying to School such as UCLA come in with an Average GPA for 4.1 or 4.2. How do you get better than 4.0 Grades? Bonus Points for AP classes, classes which are rarely available in Inner City Schools.
"I am a product of affirmative action," she said. "I am the perfect affirmative action baby. I am Puerto Rican, born and raised in the south Bronx. My test scores were not comparable to my colleagues at Princeton and Yale. Not so far off so that I wasn't able to succeed at those institutions."
She said that using "traditional numbers" from test scores, "it would have been highly questionable if I would have been accepted."
In addition to this issue there was also a language barrier for Sotomayor at Princeton which she struggled with and ultimately overcame rising again to the Top of her Class.
Nobody Gave That to her, she earned it.
What she meant by "Perfect Affirmative Action" baby is that she got a chance and having that chance she made the best of it as many studies have shown many people admitted to prestigious schools under Affirmative Action usually do excell.
A major new study of the records and experiences of tens of thousands of students over 20 years at the some of the nation's top colleges and universities concludes that their affirmative action policies created the backbone of the black middle class and taught white classmates the value of integration.
The Bowen-Bok study limits itself to the practice of race-conscious admissions in elite higher education; that is, to considering the race of applicants to be a critical factor in whether they should be admitted, as important as, say, their region of origin or their extracurricular activities.
The study begins by documenting the problem clearly: blacks who enter elite institutions do so with lower test scores and grades than those of whites. And as they work their way through liberal arts colleges like Yale and Princeton and state schools like the Universities of Michigan and North Carolina, black students receive lower grades and graduate at a lower rate.
But after graduation, the survey found, these students achieve notable successes. They earn advanced degrees at rates identical to those of their white classmates. They are even slightly more likely than whites from the same institutions to obtain professional degrees in law, business and medicine. And they become more active than their white classmates in civic and community activities.
Often coming from weaker and deficient High Schools, it makes sense that some students, even those who are at the relative top of their class - like Sotomayor - may not hit the ground running as some of their better prepared collegues, but in time they are capable of Catching Up and in many cases - Passing Them while providing an even greater impact on their community and the world at large.
From Top of Her Class in High School to Top of Her class at Princeton Sotomayor like the Bowen/Bok Study shows was a "Typical Affirmative Action Baby" went on to Top of her Class at Yale and the Yale Law Review, followed by years as a prosecutor, corporate lawyer, the Federal Bench and 17 Years on the Appellate Bench.
She has more Federal Bench Experience than any Supreme Court Nominee in 100 Years and still she isn't GOOD ENOUGH for Pat because simply put - she simply follows the law and doesn't SHOW OFF in her rulings? She hasn't written a flashy Law Review article? Yeah, so?
My problem with Pat's argument is that we shouldn't be comparing her to Harriet Miers who never even had a hearing but to those that DiD. I didn't see any of these requirements come up with either Justice Roberts or Alito. How many scholarly Law Reviews did they write? How much Bench Experience, particularly Roberts - who became Chief Justice Of the Supreme Court after being appointed to the Appellate Bench in 2003 with ZERO, NONE, ZIP experience as a Federal Trial Judge?
Three years experience. THREE!
If Roberts can be Chief Justice after graduating Magna Cum Laude from Harvard and 3 years on the bench - then Sotomayor can certainly be an Associate Justice with Suma Cum Laude's from Yale & Princeton plus 17 Years of Federal Bench experience.
And as far as being "Biased Against White Men", Sotomayor has far from a record of favoring minorities on discrmination cases. Via Scotusblog.
Other than Ricci, Judge Sotomayor has decided 96 race-related cases while on the court of appeals.
Of the 96 cases, Judge Sotomayor and the panel rejected the claim of discrimination roughly 78 times and agreed with the claim of discrimination 10 times; the remaining 8 involved other kinds of claims or dispositions.
Let's do the math, 78/96 means she decided against minority plaintiffs in 81% of her cases on the appeals court. Frankly, I find that flat-out stunning - and as a progressive somewhat worrying.
The other thing is this entire "White Victim" mentality that Buchanan likes to pimp. He refers to the Bakke Case repeatedly which went to the Supreme Court in 1977 - and the court in that decision Banned Quota Systems that would do exactly what Pat is bitching about, unfairly take oppurtunities away from the majority by giving lessor qualified minorities their slot.
Twice denied admission to a California medical school despite better grades and test scores than successful minority applicants, Allan Bakke took his grievance to court and set off a major controversy over affirmative action. Bakke claimed that he was a victim of reverse discrimination, and his case has been considered by many as the most important civil rights decision since the end of segregation-and also one of the most difficult ever heard by the Supreme Court.
While four justices confirmed that Bakke had been the victim of reverse discrimination, four others agreed that the school's affirmative action plan was a logical application of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Justice Lewis Powell sided with both viewpoints, resulting in Bakke's admission to the school and the upholding of affirmative action. The Court's unusual split decision invalidated UC-Davis's quota program for minorities but also struck down a California court's ruling that race could not be used as a factor in considering applicants.
Since this decision Affirmative Action Programs had to be limited and targeted specifically to avoid creating the type of "Reverse Discrimination" impact that is apparently still lighting Buchanan's Hair on Fire - 31 years Later.
It's also worth noting that the President who was largely responsible for implementing Affirmative Action in the first place - was the one that Buchanan worked for - Richard Milhouse Nixon.
1970. The Labor Department, under President Richard M. Nixon, issued Order No.4, authorizing flexible goals and timetables to correct "underutilization" of minorities by federal contractors.
1971. Order No.4 was revised to include women.
1971. President Nixon issued E.O. 11625, directing federal agencies to develop comprehensive plans and specific program goals for a national Minority Business Enterprise (MBE) contracting program.
1973. The Nixon administration issued "Memorandum-Permissible Goals and Timetables in State and Local Government Employment Practices," distinguishing between proper goals and timetables and impermissible quotas.
Another point is that under all the Exec Orders issued by Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon Affirmative Action is not something that every company is required to do. Only Federal Agencies or their Contractors. Which bring us to the Ricci case which simply put had nothing to do with Affirmative Action at all - this was a Civil Rights Case under the rules of Disparate Impact.
Under Title VII of the CIVIL RIGHTS ACT OF 1964, plaintiffs may sue employers who discriminate on the basis of race, color, gender, religion, or national origin. Employers who intentionally discriminate are obvious candidates for a lawsuit, but the courts also allow plaintiffs to prove liability if the employer has treated classes of people differently using apparently neutral employment policies. The disparate impact theory of liability will succeed if the plaintiff can prove that these employment policies had the effect of excluding persons who are members of Title VII's protected classes. Once disparate impact is established, the employer must justify the continued use of the procedure or procedures causing the adverse impact as a "business necessity."
Proof of discriminatory motive is not required, because in these types of cases Congress is concerned with the consequences of employment practices, not simply the motivation. If the employer proves that the requirement being challenged is job related, the plaintiff must then show that other selection devices without a similar discriminatory effect would also serve the employer's legitimate interest in efficient workmanship.
Frank Ricci was not Discriminated Against because the City of New Haven decided to double check their test to ensure they weren't vulnerable to a Disparate Impact suit. They were simply doing Due Diligence under the Law to make certain the test met the above criteria. If any of the potential Black Firefighters had sued, they would have had to prove that another alternative test which met the legitimate business needs of the Fire Dept could be crafted that didn't have this kind of clearly biased outcome which is a fairly high hurdle to climb.
How do you know that the results would be different with a different test unless you went through the expensive process of remaking the test and having it retaken by all applicants?
As a result no such suit was filed, and probably wouldn't have been filed.
What held up the promotions of Ricci and the other Firefighters for five years was their own Suit.
In response the Supreme Court has now added yet another hurdle for potential victims of Covert discrimination - they must now have a clear likelihood of prevailing in their action, prior to any case being filed.
As it stands right now under the law the only way that a White/Majority Person might lose a hard-one position to a minority or woman is when Discrimination has been Clearly and Demonstrably Proven in a Court and a Consent Decree has been put into place to Remedy an Ongoing and Current Crime. It's the equivalent of catching a crook (in the Majority) and giving his ill-gotten gains (Jobs/Promotions/Loans/Housing) back to the people that it was stolen from in the minority.
Most people would call that "Justice".
And in all likelihood, when something like this occurs as it has with the Pittsburgh Police, the Stuebenville Police, and the Los Angeles Police in the wake of the Rampart Scandal - we're not likely to hear "Uncle Pat" Railing about how unfair all of it has been to the various victims of this mistreatment.
At least now the Civil Rights Division of the DOJ (the group responsible for negotiating and enforcing these Consent Decrees) won't have people like Brad Schlozman driving minorities and women out of the Department in Droves to be replaced by "Good Americans" who don't seem interested in enforcing the Voting Rights Act. It's not encouraging when the people responsible for protecting the American people from discrimination - Can't Protect Themselves From it.
"Bradley J. Schlozman is systematically attempting to purge all Civil Rights appellate attorneys hired under Democratic administrations," the lawyer wrote, saying that he appeared to be "targeting minority women lawyers" in the section and was replacing them with "white, invariably Christian men." The lawyer also alleged that "Schlozman told one recently hired attorney that it was his intention to drive these attorneys out of the Appellate Section so that he could replace them with 'good Americans.'"
Haven't heard much from Buchanan - the great "anti-discrimination" Crusader - on this one have we?
The Reality is very different from what Buchanan paints, and the danger here is that to many aggrieved whites he makes sense. On the surface, if you've lost your job or don't think you've gotten the promotion you Must have deserved and some woman or minority got it - it's so easy to assume it must be Because of Affirmative Action even though you're employer isn't likely to even have such a program in place unless as I said, they are a federal agency or federal contractor.
Chances are - you didn't deserve the gig. Either that or you boss is kind of a dickhead, in which case it's certainly not the fault of the minorities around you or Affirmative Action.
Next up in the Videos from Purgatory Series is Follow For Now who were one Helluva Band. Signed in the flurry following Living Colour's Double-Platinum Debut "Vivid" this 5-piece Atlanta based outfit where right at the crest of a New Wave of Alternative/African-American music that unfortunately, like to many other music acts whose careers disappeared out from under them in that era, crashed on the Rocky Shoals of Cobain-ville and Lottapoorlosers after 1992. Why take a risk with and keep supporting guys like this when you can sign a ton of Nirvana/Pearl Jam Wannabe's like Candlebox, Bush and Creed?
But that didn't completely stop them, not all of them. Lead Vocalist/Guitarist David Ryan Harris went on to produce a solo record, and worked with a variety of artists starting with former Arrested Development singer Dionne Farris to Mariah Carey. in 2000 he released the first of two records (so far) by his new group Brand New Immortals and current can be found as a member of John Mayer's Backup Band.
I personally would prefer to see him fronting his own groups rather than backing up anybody else, particularly since he tends to ROCK a lot more on his own and seems like so many other Black Artists to get trapped in a generic R&B Rut when he has to play side-man to pay the bills.
This particular Follow For Now video is one I never did see on the air back in the 90's, but I did see their other video "Holy Moses".
There is also this Interview/Profile with the band which talks about the depth and relevance of their lyrics.
Although there may have been some rough spots in their first CD, I think songs like the cool funk of "Temptation", "White Hood" (which switches between and Zepplenish-Metal and Ska), a Metaled-Up cover of Public Enemies "She Watch Channel Zero" (whereas the original had used a Sample from Slayer's "Angel of Death", FFN actually played the riff themselves creating "Rap Metal" long before Limp Biscuit and Papa Roach and even a months before Anthrax's "Bring the Noise" Cover) or the straight-up cool Funkadelic groove of "Fire and the Snake" should've been classics. Unfortunately being stuck in the "Next Living Colour Box" didn't allow people to fully see the incredible potential and how widely varied and talented this group truly was.
Next in the Electric Purgatory Series is the Band Killswitch Engage. These guys seemed to have gathered quite a following even with a rather "Dark" lead singer (Jesse Leach), and that really does go to prove that the real Heavy Metal Fans - not just teeny boppers or pop rockers, but METALERS - really don't give a fuck if your green with pokadots spots as long as you Fucking RAWK!!
I went to plenty of Hard Rock and Metal Shows during the 80's and 90's and never ONCE, not Once, did I ever hear anyone say anything about "What's the Black Guy Doing here, Zeke?! Let's Git 'Em!".
Nope. Didn't happen like that. People, and especially Rock Fans are a lot more open minded than most people would give them credit for. Too bad the industry still hasn't figured that out yet.
I've never been that much into the ScreamCore side of Metal so I don't often listen to Killswitch - but I do like DIO so this particularly clip of CsE covering Dio's "Holy Diver" works out well.
On a side note, I've actually met Ronnie James Dio and I can tell you he's truly a sweetheart of a guy. My wife and I became friends with Dio/Dokken bassist Jeff Pilson and his first wife during the mid 90's and used to house sit for them while he was out recording or touring. Ronnie came by one day for a birthday party, and I have to say he's one of the most down-to-earth guys you could ever imagine for an International Rock Star.
I was actually dumb enough to tell Ronnie that I'd missed one of his shows at the House of Blues because a) I ran into Tom Morello in the audience b) I really REALLY wanted a chance to meet and talk to his opening band Atomic Opera and C) I didn't even realize that JEFF was playing with him at the time. Fortunately my wife saved my idiot ass by pointing out that she'd been a fan of Ronnie's going all the way back to Elf when they had originally toured as the opening band for Deep Purple. Ronni's later group Rainbow was essentially Elf plus Richie Blackmore of DP. I myself had mostly gotten into Ronnie's Music when he joined Black Sabbath to replace Ozzy and put out that great song for the Heavy Metal Movie soundtrack - "Mob Rules". That was one of the tracks that got me really listening to Heavy Rock and not just Earth Wind and Fire all the time. (Ok, I was never that narrow - I was also into Blondie and the Ramones, but you get the idea).
I also really dug Dio's solo band with Vivian Campbell, me and my metal friends in South Central used to sit and re-wind the video of "We Rock" with our eyes wide and mouth open as Vivian's fingers would fly across the fret board. Good Times.
Unfortunately we haven't kept in touch with Ronnie or Jeff (particularly since his divorce and remarriage) so much over the years and I regret that since they're both great guys.
Next in my ongoing series of bands relegated to Electric Purgatory is Nicklebag - not to be confused with that other Nickle... band - which features Rolling Stones Backup Singer Bernard Fowler and former Sass Jordan guitarist (and Native-American) Stevie Salas. The rythym section was a rotating lists who who's who, from Dave Abbruzese of Pearl Jam to T.M. Stevens.
During the Mid 90's the they released 2 albums, ("12 Hits and a Bump","Mas Feedback") both of whom are essentially masterpeices of grooving hardrock, which included a ton of cool covers from a funked and rocked out version of Garbage's "I'm only Happy When it Rains" to this - a cover a Funkadelic's "Hit it and Quit it".
Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions attempts to challenge the Bias of Judge Sonia Sotomayor on the basis of her past statements doubting that two "wise judges" will always reach the same decision.
In this section Judge Sotomayor denies the interpretation of her statements as presented by Sessions, and further states that her underlying point was that equally wise and richly experienced people - just might disagree.
First a quick Refresher on exactly who Senator Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III really is.
In 1986 Jeff Sessions failed in his bid to become a Federal Judge himself because he thought the NAACP - the organization formed to fight Lynchings - was a "Anti-American/Communist" association. He also called a fellow White Lawyer who defended Black people a "Traitor to his Race" - and yet he presumes to Judge the bias of Judge Sotomayor?
Like. Wow!
Now a question, as Litigator Mom posted today - who said this?
"Let us not forget that wise men like Oliver Wendell Holmes and Justice Cardozo voted on cases which upheld both sex and race discrimination in our society. Until 1972, no Supreme Court case ever upheld the claim of a woman in a gender discrimination case. I, like Professor Carter, believe that we should not be so myopic as to believe that others of different experiences or backgrounds are incapable of understanding the values and needs of people from a different group. Many are so capable. As Judge Cedarbaum pointed out to me, nine white men on the Supreme Court in the past have done so on many occasions and on many issues including Brown."
Who said this?
Judge Sonia Sotomayor in the statements immediately following her comments where she HOPED a "Wise Latina with the wealth of experience" would come to better conclusion on a discrimination case than (a Wise someone) without that experience. Clearly she was saying she doubted that this was a foregone conclusion. And in the hearings today she underscore this meaning to her original comments.
She did NOT say that she couldn't see a case from the perspective of people whose experience different from her own, rather she truthfully stated the difficulty in seeing and fully appreciating circumstances of others that our outside our own experience and that "neutrality and fairness" is not our natural state, instead it is some we must work hard to achieve and maintain. In fact, I think Sessions seems to embody exactly what he's attacking since he seems completely incapable of reading and understand all of Sotomayor's statement simply because it's a perspective that is so far different than his own experience.
ie: "Boy. Better Watch Yourself. Traitor to your Race. The Klan is not to so bad... except for The Pot!"
In this section Beauregard challenges Sotomayor on the Ricci Case.
Sotomayor correctly points out that she didn't make this decision on her own, she was part of a panel - and that other appelate courts (the 6th Circuit) have come to similar conclusions on similar cases based on the standing precedent on the Disparate Impact standard under Title VI.
Disparate Impact: Even where an employer is not motivated by discriminatory intent, Title VII prohibits an the employer from using a facially neutral employment practice that has an unjustified adverse impact on members of a protected class.
That is the Law. It has been the Law for 40 years.
The question in the Ricci case was whether or not the City was Justified in scraping the test and starting over in the likelihood of a potential Disparate Impact Suit - the Supreme Court has now determined and set a New Standard which says that in similar cases the employer would need to determine that they were likely to Lose a Disparate Impact Suit, not simply that one is likely to be filed.
I personally don't have a problem the new standard, but it is unreasonable to blame Sotomayor and the 2nd Circuit for following existing precedent, rather than changing the standard in an Activist Way.
Sotomayor followed the Law, The Robert's Court -Changed it.
Ra featuring Sahaj Ticontin on lead vocals/guitar with "Do You call My Name", one of their two medium level hits so far the other being "Rectifier". Clearly influenced by modern "Alternative Metal" with a sound reminiscent of Crossfade and 30 Seconds to Mars this band has done reasonably well with their five CD's so far (although each has been on a different label)
Not a band I've ever seen live, their new CD "Black Sun" was released in late 2008.
Mother's Finest has been Rocking The shit since the 1976, and have managed to keep it going for over 30 years so far. Although they can hardly get arrested for anything besides "Rocking While Black" in America, they've become a huge - I mean HUGE - band in Europe and England and they haven't Stopped Rocking' Yet. This 2003 performance from a German TV Show, featuring "Hard Rock Lover" and "Niggaz Groove/Like A Negro" makes that point very clear.
Like a lot of other Black Musicians, they've faced pressure to do a "Straight" R&B and in 1989 actually gave into the pressure to produce "If Looks Could Kill" , which essentially went Plywood. They responded to that with a blazing Hard Rock Record that would make Ozzy Blush called "Black Radio Won't Play this Record" which includes the original version of "Like a Negro". I actually managed to catch a copy of this the one time - and I do meant ONE TIME because I watched every week - that the video was shown on Head Bangers ball on MTV. I sent a copy of to DuG Pinnick of King's X because the guitarist was wearing a "Faith Hope Love" King's X T-shirt, just like the one Hal Sparks wears all the time. Amazingly, on their next record they had a song that went "Huh!" on the downbeat too - but Dug always denied that it was inspired by the MF Video I sent.
I've seen MF Live twice, the first time was at the Palace in Hollywood - across from the Capital Records Building (The Label that made them do the Lame R&B Album), at one point Jean Kennedy (Co-Lead Singer with her Husband Glenn Murdock) actually put down her Mic at one point and managed to Sing Over The Band and still be heard - her voice is THAT powerful. I managed to meet them, and Angelo Moore (Of Fishbone - who hosted the show) backstage after the gig.
The Second Live MF show I saw was at the Coconut Teaser during their "Black Radio" tour with a Lineup that included the legendary Spacey T (Sound Barrier/Fishbone/Year of the Dragon) on Guitar. That was a Show I'll NEVER Forget, they Rocked the SHIT outta that place. and I'd seen a lot of bands at the Teaser before it was eventually shutdown - the only band that came close to MF that night was Total Eclipse (which featured 2 members from Sound Barrier - Bernie and Dave - and 2 from The Bus Boys - Victor and Andre). TE played like a Machine they were so tight - my friend (bassist/multi-instrumentalist) Les July used to joke "Is It Memorex"? - it sounded that good.
Legend has it that when the Teaser used to be called the Starwood in the 70'[s it was the club where Gene Simmon's originally discovered Van Halen, it's also the place whose former owner had been robbed of a bunch of drugs aided and abetted by none other than Porn Star John Holmes. (A creepy scene similar to this real event was included in the Film "Boogie Nights") Lots of History in that part of Hollywood.
One of my personal favorite groups for a very long time, this Atlanta based five man crush-a-thon is headed by Lajon Witherspoon - who legend has it was discovered singing with a Living Colour cover band. This tight and heavy unit has so far produced 8 Albums since 1998, yet haven't quite gotten their due even though the last two discs Alpha & Chapter VII: Hope and Sorrow have scored in the top 20 on the Billboard Top 200 Album Charts.
I've seen them about three times, the last time which was about 5 or 6 years ago in Downtown Sacramento I was actually sitting outside the Crest Theater before their show with an Acoustic Guitar playing for Quarters. Lajon came walking by the with Local Rock DJ Kylie Brooks and listened for awhile, then asked if I was going to the show. I wasn't because I couldn't afford it at the time - hence the guitar and the quarters - so they gave me tickets which was Hella Cool.
I eventually had to Hock that Acoustic Guitar for Food and Rent, now some of those songs are on my new CD.
I have to say, the Super 8 CD - well over ten years after it's release - remains one of my favorites. Songs like "Mountain", "Pain", "Fire" and "Pills" had a rare level of passion and performance that I really haven't heard since, but it was the song "April 19th" which was either inspired by the destruction of Branch Dividian Compound in Waco, the bombing of the Murrah Federal Building - both of which occured on April the 19th, Hitler's Birthday - is an eerily haunting track, that sticks in your mind no matter how you might try to shake it off.
Ra featuring Sahaj Ticontin on lead vocals/guitar with "Do You call My Name", one of their two medium level hits so far the other being "Rectifier". Clearly influenced by modern "Alternative Metal" with a sound reminiscent of Crossfade and 30 Seconds to Mars this band has done reasonably well with their five CD's so far (although each has been on a different label)