Kidnap subject. Strip off his clothes and dress him in a tracksuit. Blindfold and shackle him. Force headphones over his ears. Fly him to an unknown location to be interrogated, tortured, and imprisoned. Repeat.

This is the practice of "extraordinary rendition," and the experience of 35-year-old U.K. resident Binyam Mohamed on his journey home to London from Pakistan in July 2002. He was kidnapped to Morocco, where he was held for 18 months and tortured repeatedly. "They cut off my clothes with some kind of doctor's scalpel," he wrote in his diary. "I was totally naked…One of them took my penis in his hand and began to make a cut…He did it once, then stood still for maybe a minute, watch my reaction. It was an agony, [I was] crying, trying desperately to suppress my feelings, but I was screaming. There was blood all over."

This was just one of 20 to 30 incidents in which Mohamed was cut on his genitals while detained in Morocco. Interrogators routinely beat him, breaking bones and sometimes knocking him unconscious. He was frequently threatened with rape, electrocution and death, drugged repeatedly, and forced to listen to loud music day and night.

In January 2004, he was handcuffed and blindfolded again, placed in a van and driven to an airfield, then stripped, photographed extensively and put on a plane to a "Dark Prison" in Kabul, Afghanistan. Mohamed endured similar torture and daily interrogations in Kabul. In May, he was sent to Bagram. In September, he was sent to Guantánamo Bay. Mohamed was in Guantánamo for more than four years, and was released in February 2009. His military commission charges were dropped in October 2008.

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One of the most wonderful novelty songs of World War II. Betty Hutton is either dating a zoot suiter, or the pre-incarnation of Link on Mod Squad (he says, "Solid!" he says.)

What's cookin in your ears tonight?

In which Andrew Bacevich schools David Frum on strategic defense policy issues. David Frum asks Dr. Bacevich how he would advise Obama (just around 11 minutes in):

What I would say is, Mr. President, you need to stop having meetings about Afghanistan. You need to start having meetings in which your national security team will help you identify what are the core principles that are informing US strategy that will deal with the problem of jihadism. And Mr. President, if you indeed give into this impulse to obsess about Afghanistan, ... then your administration will continue to have no strategy. You'll have a "Long War,"  so-called, he certainly going to run for re-election based on his record in Afghanistan, assuming that he does some variant of the options that are on the table, but he won't have a strategy. And I think that that's a tragedy, for the United States of America, at this stage of the game, to not have a strategy.

From his lips to Obama's ears. Highly recommended, if not only to watch Bacevich calmly and confidently destroy Frum, as Frum wriggles uncomfortably in his seat.

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(Peter, Paul and Mary - Mary Travers: 1936-2009)

Hearing the sad news this week of the death of Mary Travers, I was thinking about the great impact Peter, Paul and Mary had on the music scene from the early 1960s onward. Most people are so familiar with them now that it seems as though they've always been around - there never was a time without Peter, Paul and Mary. They've become so synonymous with American folk music and with pop music in general that it's hard to imagine a time when they were new and had just arrived and those songs so ingrained in our collective consciousness weren't quite familiar yet.

So it was interesting to listen to this concert, recorded live at the Hollywood Bowl on August 2, 1963 - and played here for the first time ever (it has not been available in any form anywhere). Hearing it with fresh ears and all the enthusiasm of a special event, even though it's from 45 years ago.

Maybe not so dim and distant.

Further evidence it's all timeless.

Thank you Mary.

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(Peter, Paul and Mary - Mary Travers: 1936-2009)

Hearing the sad news this week of the death of Mary Travers, I was thinking about the great impact Peter, Paul and Mary had on the music scene from the early 1960s onward. Most people are so familiar with them now that it seems as though they've always been around - there never was a time without Peter, Paul and Mary. They've become so synonymous with American folk music and with pop music in general that it's hard to imagine a time when they were new and had just arrived and those songs so ingrained in our collective consciousness weren't quite familiar yet.

So it was interesting to listen to this concert, recorded live at the Hollywood Bowl on August 2, 1963 - and played here for the first time ever (it has not been available in any form anywhere). Hearing it with fresh ears and all the enthusiasm of a special event, even though it's from 45 years ago.

Maybe not so dim and distant.

Further evidence it's all timeless.

Thank you Mary.

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(Mazzy Star - rumored to still be together . .at least on paper)

I wouldn't exactly call Mazzy Star an obscure band of the 90s. They had a few albums out, three on a major label (one which went platinum), did solo gigs, morphed into other bands, morphed back and more or less have maintained a just-below-the-radar presence, probably more in Europe than here. But with the current state of radio and retail, you can never tell. Initially part of the California Paisley Underground (a sort of West Coast version of Madchester with heavier emphasis on the 60s), Mazzy Star evolved into one of the more interesting American alternative bands in the early-mid 90's.

Their most notable track was "Fade Into You" off their "So Tonight That I Might See" album. Was a huge hit for them and had promise for a major career, with the likes of the dreamy/mysterious Hope Sandoval fronting as vocalist.

But the promise never really materialized after "So Tonight . . ." went platinum, and after a tour in 1997 the band went separate ways. Although with the recent release of a new project, Hope Sandoval and The Warm Inventions, there has been confirmation the group is still together. So we'll see what's ahead.

This track, Ghost Highway, comes from an In-Store promo CD Capitol issued when they were promoting Fade Into You. It's a live version, done for MTV Europe and it is, for my ears, a much more intense and better produced version than the studio one that appeared on "So Tonight..."

If you're familiar with this band and this track, you may not be familiar with this version. You might be pleasantly surprised.

Paul Rieckhoff from IAVA gave me a heads up on this yesterday. Ralph Peters is one of those wacko military hawks that FOX News uses to ramp up the Rambo style militia movement they hold so dear to their hearts. He was prattling on (almost spitting up as he spoke) about how this soldier might be a deserter and if that was the case--he should be executed by the Taliban. Yea, real sane analysis by Peters.

Peters: Now look, Julie, I want to be clear. If, when the facts are in, we find out that through some convoluted chain of events, he really was captured by the Taliban, I'm with him. But, if he walked away from his post and his buddies at wartime... I don't care how hard it sounds, as far as I'm concerned, the Taliban can save us a lot of legal hassles and legal bills.

Antman11 has more:

I couldn't believe my ears, but just minutes ago on "America's News HQ," guest pundit Ralph Peters suggested something to the effect that the Taliban should "save us the headache" and execute captured 23 year-old American soldier Bowe Bergdahl, because "it looks like" Bergdahl deserted his unit. While prefacing his comments by stressing that a military decision should not be made until all of the facts surrounding Bergdahl's capture are determined, Peters then ignored his own advice and encouraged the Taliban to kill this young man. Fox News' Julie Banderas was visibly shocked at the words coming out of Peters' mouth, but did not challenge any of his statements before awkwardly ending the segment.

You might have forgotten that Ralphie boy also thinks the media should be murdered by our troops too. He's a real psycho. Just the kind of pundits FOX loves.

Peters: Rejecting the god of their fathers, the neo-pagans who dominate the media serve as lackeys at the terrorists’ bloody altar.

Pretending to be impartial, the self-segregating personalities drawn to media careers overwhelmingly take a side, and that side is rarely ours. Although it seems unthinkable now, future wars may require censorship, news blackouts and, ultimately, military attacks on the partisan media.

(Thanks to reader Walter for this tip!)

This week's installment of the 50 State Strategy brings us cellist/singer/songwriter Ben Sollee of Lexington, KY. No, he might not sell as many records as My Morning Jacket but to my ears he's the most accolade-deserving Kentuckian.

Check out more at his site.

Every Monday night, C&L's Late Nite Music Club will feature an act from every state, alphabetically by state, as part of LNMC's 50 State Strategy. Know a band or artist that you think is the best in their state? Email suggestions to latenitemusicclub [at] gmail.com. Next week: Louisiana.

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We already knew that Griff Jenkins' attempt to ambush ACORN officials earlier this week on behalf of Glenn Beck didn't exactly produce any scintillating video moments -- except when Adam Green pinned his ears to the wall for pretending to be a legitimate journalist. (As though any legitimate journalist would bring a prop intended to humiliate his interview subjects.)

So Jenkins went on Beck's show last night and presented what little decent video he had. As you can see, no one was interested in helping his little stunt along, and most of the people who actually talked to him did little to advance the narrative he wanted to create.

Verdict: Fail. Epic Fail.

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(Making an indelible impression on a curious teenage mind.)

If there was one single thing, one defining moment that turned my life around as a teenager, it would be the first time I heard "The Dreams" in 1966.

No, The Dreams are not a band - nobody played guitar, you can't dance to them. The Dreams was the first part of a four part Electronic Music piece originally broadcast over the BBC in 1964 and released by the BBC Transcription Service to radio stations in the U.S. shortly after.

It was described as "an invention for radio" conceived and written by Barry Bermange and scored by The BBC Radiophonic Workshop. The result was haunting, hypnotic and totally overwhelming for these fifteen year old ears. It completely changed the way I listened and reacted to music.

Having only captured half of it on tape at the time, I waited years to find the complete recording, when a radio station tossed out their BBC Transcription library. We collectors are adept at being dumpster divers, even before it was fashionable.

For a long time I thought Barry Bermange (a talented writer on his own) was the one behind the whole concept. I didn't realize until much later that The BBC Radiophonic Workshop was actually the brainchild of Delia Derbyshire, and she was the one responsible for the incredible electronic sound that accompanied the voices.

Her work has been sadly neglected over the years (she died in 2001), but reading about her I came to realize she had a huge influence over a lot of people in the 60's, from Luciano Berio to The Beatles.

Hearing The Dreams today is just as fresh as when I first heard it that Saturday night in 1966.

Some things are just destined to stay with you.