I prefer to die standing up than live on my knees. 

France 24 is live-blogging the hunt for the terrorists responsible for the latest in a string of Islamic atrocities. 

The latest from the BBC.

Cell phone footage of two of the jihadists assassinating a French police officer. 

h/t The Guardian.

More in-depth coverage of the terrorist cavalcade which took place in Midtown last week, courtesy of our good friends at The Silent Majority No More. While some large news networks overseas have seen fit to cover the orgy of violence-besotted jihadis who marched in this parade, albeit with the requisite sophistic denials from  its Muslim spokesmen, the absence of coverage from our own drive-by media of the more unpleasant elements of the Religion of Peace is striking-although not surprising.

Congratulations once again to Urban Infidel, Pamela Geller, TSMNM and all of the intrepid bloggers, journalists, and patriotic, anti-sharia freedom activists who risked their safety in order to inform the American public of this growing domestic threat!

Last week I had the pleasure of witnessing a panel discussion at the Rush Arts Gallery moderated by Julie Ashcraft, who is currently curating an exhibition entitled The Grand Cypher: Hip Hop, Iran & Syria. You can see the multi-media exhibit through May 24th, but I decided to take in the works of art and poetry last week in order to listen to a riveting conversation about the nature of hip hop within a global context, the opening of which you can view for yourself. In addition to acclaimed independent rapper Immortal Technique and New York attorney Jenny Poupa Marashi, who was born in Iran, there were two artists who participated in the panel via Livestream, Ehsan Ziya (Atour)-who hosted the first hip hop podcast in the nation of Iran-and Francis A. Willey, a composer and artist known not only for an iconic image appropriated by freedom activists in the Middle East but for an innovative, less toxic method of processing photographs. 

What struck me about this event was the way it embodied was the transcendent nature of art. Many of the artists whose works were displayed in this exhibition had experienced indescribable hardships-including war and imprisonment-in order to have their voices heard. The fact that they are able to recognize the importance of art-and how essential it is to life-in the face of threats to their own livelihood and security demonstrates its universality to the human condition. In a society where artists clamor for subsidies from unwilling taxpayers, it was refreshing to experience artwork which was created  at great personal sacrifice, often in defiance of government censorship.

One of the most fascinating aspects of the panel discussion was a debate over the role of the hip hop community in fostering public debate over critical domestic and foreign policy issues. Immortal Technique-the Peruvian-born, Harlem raised rap artist Felipe Andres Coronel-was arguably the ideal person to address this subject, being at the forefront of independent, conscious hip hop. Even though I was familiar with some of his views prior to this discussion, I was nonetheless wowed by the breadth of knowledge on display by Coronel, whose commentary ranged over the role the Sykes-Picot Agreement played in the current, sanguinary problems in the Levant, to the extent of white slavery within an empire of oppression dominated by Arab-Muslim armies of conquest in the past. Regardless of what you think of his personal political philosophy, it’s difficult to argue that Immortal Technique brings a sagacity and historical knowledge to his work that is sadly lacking  in the contemporary rap world.

Ehsan Ziya, his Iranian counterpart, contributed his own fascinating observations to this discussion, which also delved into the necessity of maintaining creative and financial control over the work you produce. As an artist in an Islamic theocracy which exercises complete control over what artistic expression and information is allowed to be consumed by the general public, he experiences life very differently than artists living in North America or Europe. The plight of  those seeking to create independent cinema, music and art within Iran is well known in the west, however very few people are aware of the struggles of the underground rap scene. One of the chief obstacles rappers like Ziya must overcome is the Catch-22 facing musicians who seek to turn their passion into a vocation. Namely, that in order to monetize their art these rap artists need to be widely known among the Iranian public, but once they become well known, the authorities rapidly crush them.

Even though he is not explicitly political, Ziya faces persecution because of the incipient threat that any large group of individuals-even those who merely share a common interest in a particular musical genre-pose in the wake of the Green Revolution. Unsurprisingly, artists who do not challenge the existing political status quo-even in an oblique manner-receive the full support of the regime-a point validated by the approval of a rap LP devoted to the devastating 2003 earthquake in Bam, which was produced by a group of musicians who had the full-throated endorsement of the IRI and its state institutions. The chasm that exists between those artists who are unencumbered by the desire to please authority-and as a result, are persecuted by the powers that be-and those who insist upon kowtowing to power, was thrown into stark relief by The Grand Cypher.

Therefore, I highly recommend visiting this exhibition, which will be on display through next week.

Although the deaths of migrants from North Africa and the Middle East upon the doorstep of Europe has occupied the attention of news media over the past few weeks, the difficulties endured by nations which serve as buffers between the third world and the West are often overlooked. One of the countries taxed by an influx of refugees from war-ravaged nations is the west African nation of Cameroon. Over 100,000 refugees reside in that country after fleeing Nigeria and the Central African Republic, because of a brutal Islamic insurgency  and ongoing civil war, respectively.

In other migration news, dozens of Rohingya Muslims from Burma are reported missing after their boat capsized in the Bay of Bengal. Despite the grossly misleading reportage we’ve been treated to by outlets like the BBC and Washington Post, among others, the inter-communal violence within Burma is not simply a case of an Islamophobic backlash, as Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi has repeatedly pointed out. This Daily Telegraph photo essay provides a much more nuanced view of the violence engulfing Burma, much of it directed against Rakhine State’s Buddhist population by Muslim jihadists.

Moving on to the Western Hemisphere, we learned today that the U.S. Treasury Department has blacklisted 20 businesses linked to Rafael Caro Quintero, the Mexican drug lord responsible for the brutal torture and execution of DEA agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena, who was recently released from prison this past August, despite having over a decade remaining on his prison sentence. Thanks to the endemically corrupt Mexican government, the proceeds of Quintero’s racketeering empire remained in his family, which will undoubtedly prove useful to one of the world’s most wanted fugitives.

In cheap labor lobby news, Indian outsourcing titan Infosys has reached a settlement with the federal government in its lawsuit alleging widespread visa fraud. The wholesale importation of foreign workers by Indian outsourcing firms is a problem in the high tech industry, although it is not the sole, nor even the primary, reason for the widespread unemployment and underemployment of highly qualified computer programmers and STEM graduates. As Norm Matloff has explained, the employment practices of American companies are even worse than their Indian counterparts, which shouldn’t surprise anyone who’s come across the ubiquitous pro-amnesty ads bankrolled by amnesty’s biggest cheerleader in Silicon Valley.

Finally, the news that there are still hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens streaming into the United States shouldn’t surprise anyone who’s been paying even perfunctory attention to the immigration reform debate occurring in Washington D.C. over the past year. While most of these aliens come from Central America, their  ultimate destination is clear. Despite the pressing need for border security, Janet Napolitano’s replacement at DHS doesn’t seem to be concerned about the waves of illegal aliens streaming across our southern border.

Mark Krikorian speculates that Mr. Johnson was installed in order to enact the wholesale version of amnesty via administrative fiat. Whether his promotion leads to stealth amnesty or is simply a savvy public relations move on the part of the Obama administration, the remainder of this year will provide some interesting clues as to how the anti-citizen party will proceed in its path to electoral hegemony.

Stay tuned…

Whether it’s the uncertain future of Attorney General Eric Holder, the bipartisan push to complete President Obama’s crusade for amnesty, the attempts by the domestic left to affirm racial discrimination in the case of  Fisher vs. University of Texas, or the curious way Islamic newcomers are adapting to French culture, we’ll be covering it on our Facebook Immigration Reform board.

Come join the conversation!