Monday, February 27, 2006

Another Angle 27 - February - 2006

ANOTHER ANGLE
News others won't tell you



NATIONAL:



Farrakhan's Saviors' Day Speech Raises Controversy
"You are a weak nation now and your country has been taken from you by the synagogue of Satan. They own Congress. That's why the Congress ain’t right," Farrakhan said.
“The synagogue of Satan” by Minister Louis Farrakhan



Former CIA Analyst: Western Intelligence May Be Behind Mosque Bombing
"The main question is Qui Bono? Who benefits from this kind of thing? You don't have to be very conspiratorial or even paranoid to suggest that there are a whole bunch of likely suspects out there and not only the Sunnis. You know, the
British officers were arrested, dressed up in Arab garb, riding around in a car, so this stuff goes on."



Why Aren't Black Business Tycoons Celebrated During Black History Month?
For more than two decades, a number of historians, led largely by the pathbreaking scholarship of Professor Juliet E.K. Walker of the University of Texas, have been working to expand our knowledge of the rich tradition of black entrepreneurs, managers, and corporate executives. Too few people, including U.S. historians, have taken notice.



INTERNATIONAL:



Venezuela Prepared to Stop U.S. Exports
"If our country, our process, our constitution are attacked by the Bush administration, we are not going to send any more oil," Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez told the Ultimas Noticias daily in an interview. "We'll see then which of the two governments is able to manage this type of a situation better."



Israeli company stops petroleum supplies to Palestinian lands
Al-Bader said the Israeli company that exported petroleum products to Palestinian lands notified the Palestinian Authority (PA) that it could not continue supplying Palestinian lands, after the official Palestinian check bounced due to insufficient fund.



Iran clear and present danger to US
With its need to import and consume more petroleum and more of everything, there is no way for the US to pay its debts, even though it may earn some money from lending out the funds deposited with it by the countries of the world. There simply is too much US dollars within the world’s financial system. And so the deficit of the US will continue to grow, for such is the size of its debt that it cannot pay even the interest from earnings. In reality, the US is bankrupt. That is why Iran must be destroyed at any cost. The Iranian oil bourse poses a clear and present danger to the survival of the United States.
*
US 'skeptical' of Iran- Russia nuclear deal
*BELLACIAO - March 20 to 26, 2006: Iran-USA, beginning of a major ...world crisis



Mexico front-runner promises break with U.S. policies
Conservative President Vicente Fox broke that tradition after taking office in 2000 when he joined the United States in condemning the lack of fundamental liberties in Cuba and elsewhere. Mexico's foreign policy under Fox sought to promote human rights and civil liberties abroad. That'll change, Lopez Obrador signaled to a crowd estimated between 70,000 and 120,000. Having led public opinion polls for two years, Lopez Obrador is on track to become Mexico's first president elected from a left-wing party, the Party of the Democratic Revolution.



Egypt Announces Discovery of Ramses II Statues



BUSH CRIME FAMILY:



Why Is Halliburton Building Internment Camps?
As early as September of 2002, John Ashcroft discussed internment of even American citizens who were deemed “enemy combatants” [2a] and Peter Kirsanow of the U.S. Civil Rights Commission said that he “could foresee a scenario in which the public would demand internment camps for Arab Americans if Arab terrorists strike again in this country.” If there’s a future terrorist attack in America ‘’and they come from the same ethnic group that attacked the World Trade Center, you can forget about civil rights.” [2 b]



ECONOMY:

Private Rivers
The IDB, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund are the largest purveyors of water privatization worldwide. Behind the charitable guise of providing water to the poor, the majority of the water projects are implementing changes that shift control of water management and propriety over water itself from democratic forums (like city councils and state legislatures) to corporate board rooms. The majority of these projects are in Africa and Latin America, while most of them include some type of "hydro-sector reform."



U.S. and Colombia Reach Free Trade Deal
What do we get in return? Cocaine?



OP-ED:



US and Iran Collision Course Is Financial, Not Nuclear
LEAP/E2020's researchers and analysts thus identified 7 convergent crises that the American and Iranian decisions coming into effect during the last week of March 2006, will catalyse and turn into a total crisis, affecting the whole planet in the political, economic and financial fields, as well as in the military field



FOOD&DRINK:



BUFFALO BURGERS WITH PICKLED ONIONS AND SMOKY RED PEPPER SAUCE




REVIEWS/INTERVIEWS:



Jazzman Gerald Wilson, Still Enjoying His 'Time'
Jazz great Gerald Wilson is still going strong at 87. His most recent album, In My Time was released last year.



Sunday, February 26, 2006

Another Angle 26 - February - 2006

ANOTHER ANGLE
News others won't tell you



NATIONAL:



Give 'em hell, Harry!
If you think Rev. Lowery spoke truth to power, after you see this you will know why the Bush Crime Family would not share the stage at Coretta Scott King's funeral with Harry Belafonte.



Tiny neo-Nazi march jeered, ends early
More than 500 counterprotesters held back by 300 police officers drowned out the message of a neo-Nazi group that marched through Orlando's historic black Parramore neighborhood Saturday.



Spring Break on the Gulf Coast
This spring break, undergrad and graduate students across the country are going to be heading down to Biloxi, Miss., Mobile Ala., and New Orleans, La. Not to party hearty, or to get their groove on at clubs catering to them and their dollars, but to help make a difference in the lives affected most by the biggest natural disaster to hit the United States in recent history, thanks to the organizing efforts of the Katrina on the Ground initiative.



Unrest continues at Augustine Volcano
The level of concern color code for Korovin Volcano was elevated from Green to YELLOW on Wednesday (2/22/06) of this week in response to elevated seismicity. Distinct seismic signals were recorded four of six days between January 17 and 22, with a sustained, 11 minute-long seismic signal on February 22, indicating unrest at this volcano.



War Corporatism: The New Fascism
A video by Simon Robson aka.
Knife Party and friend, Barry McNamara. It's an animated look at the dogs of War Corporatism unleashed upon the world by Bush and the PNAC as stated in the September 2000 document Rebuilding America's Defenses.



EPA OK’d plan to dump nerve agent into Delaware
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency won't oppose the U.S. Department of Defense and DuPont Co.'s plan to dump a wastewater byproduct of a deadly nerve agent into the Delaware River. The agency said it's assured of a safe treatment for up to 4 million gallons of caustic wastewater created in the treatment for VX, a chemical weapon with a pinhead-size potency to kill a human. DuPont is treating VX for disposal at its Newport Chemical Depot in Indiana.



Dubai Firm Takeover Extended From Six US Ports To 21...
P&O is the parent company of P&O Ports North America, which leases terminals for the import and export and loading and unloading and security of cargo in 21 ports, 11 on the East Coast, ranging from Portland, Maine to Miami, Florida, and 10 on the Gulf Coast, from Gulfport, Miss., to Corpus Christi, Texas, according to the company's Web site.



Hamer at '64 Dem convention fueled Miss. party's defection
A national TV audience in 1964 was captivated by the booming voice of a stubby Mississippi black woman named Fannie Lou Hamer coming from the Democratic National convention in Atlantic City. Dramatically, she told from her personal experience how Mississippi blacks through violence and intimidation were excluded from the political process in her state.



Obedient Slaves Have Nothing to Fear:
Get used to surveillance gadgets mounted above every intersection or inside every store. Soon enough, surveillance cameras will be “on downtown streets and in apartment complexes, shopping malls and even private homes to fight crime during a shortage of police officers,” as presaged by Houston Police Chief Harold Hurtt.



INTERNATIONAL:



Russia, Iran agree to set up enrichment venture - vice president
Russia and Iran have agreed to set up a joint uranium enrichment venture in Russia, the Iranian vice president said Sunday. "We held talks with the Russian side on Russia's proposal yesterday and today. The talks saw good progress. Both sides are pleased with the talks," Gholamreza Agazadeh said after a meeting with Russia's nuclear chief Sergei Kiriyenko.



U.S. Defends Conditions at Bagram Prison
The U.S. military on Sunday defended its detention of about 500 inmates at its main base in Afghanistan, saying they are treated humanely and provided the ``best possible living conditions.'' The New York Times on Sunday reported that inmates are held by the dozen in wire cages at the Bagram Air Base, north of Kabul - some for as long as two or three years without access to lawyers or the chance to hear the allegations against them.
Afghan Inmates Riot, Take Over Prison Wing


IRAQ:



Iraqi Government warns of 'endless civil war'



In pictures: Iraq shrine bombing



After Askariya
Sammara eyewitness, however, have published accounts on various websites, like Iraqirabita.org, saying US and Iraqi forces had sealed off access ways to the Shrine the night prior to the explosion.



BUSH CRIME FAMILY:



Witnesses say they funneled donations
Tom Noe was so eager to become a Bush “Pioneer” that he used a pair of former top aides to Gov. Bob Taft to launder campaign contributions to the President’s re-election bid, documents released yesterday by prosecutors show. H. Douglas Talbott told investigators last summer that he and Doug Moormann took part in Mr. Noe’s alleged scheme in October, 2003, to illegally funnel money into the President’s campaign.



Details of 2005 Bush bike accident released
HE MAY be the most powerful man in the world, but proof has emerged that President George Bush cannot ride a bike, wave and speak at the same time.



ECONOMY:



Orders to U.S. factories for manufactured goods fall by largest amount in 5.5 years



Cancelled home orders: Latest bubble prick?



Setting sail away from America: The world finds it's too hard to do business with the US
In the UK, in the cash-rich Gulf states and in fast-growing India, different incidents in the past week have made people ask the same question: is it worth doing business with the US?



OP-ED:



Katrina and the Failure of Black Leadership
http://www.blackcommentator.com/172/172_cover_katrina_shock.html
So this is not a commentary about the minutia of legislation that has been introduced under the signatures of various Black congresspeople. None of it is going anywhere, anyway. It is about Black leadership, and its failings in the wake of the Katrina crisis. Black congressional leadership been has been dragged around by the nose by Nancy Pelosi and the rest of the white folks who are indebted to corporations.



Being Poor's the Real Crime as Cops Nab Trash Thieves
Milwaukee Municipal Judge Jim Gramling, a judge with a social conscience, told Journal Sentinel columnist Jim Stingl that he has seen a parade of poor people in front of him recently charged with stealing garbage. Gramling, who unfortunately is retiring from the bench, said he routinely voids these tickets, which carry a fine of $122. He said he's seen police pile multiple charges onto poor people, including a $300 fine for failure to obtain a junk dealer's license.



On the brink in Iraq
Like the Sarajevo assassination that precipitated World War I, the attack on the mosque may trigger a war, but it won't be the cause. The cause is far more deep-rooted, embedded in the chaos and bitterness that followed the U.S. invasion of Iraq and America's deliberate efforts to stress sectarian differences in creating the Iraqi Governing Council and subsequent government institutions. If the current crisis doesn't spark a civil war, be patient. The next one will.



Black men still waiting for a reason to smile
What makes us happy? Sad? And what our goals are for the future? Due to lack of space, this column reflects only the viewpoints of the male gender. One of my biggest pet peeves is men who don't smile. Maybe this is why I discovered a liking for Nelly's song Grillz (urban term for diamond studded fake teeth), " ... smile for me daddy, I wanna see yo grillz..."



HEALTH&FITNESS:



Guess who the big loser is under Bush health plan
Demonically, the Bush proposal gives employers new reasons not to offer traditional health coverage, or any medical benefits at all. Indeed, the new health savings accounts could do to the traditional health plan what the 401(k) plan did to the traditional pension: Kill it off. Like 401(k)s, the proposed HSAs could save money for employers while transferring the cost and risk of providing what was once an expected benefit onto the workers.



FOOD&DRINK:



Celebrating the Corn Flake's Centenary
In honor of corn flakes' centenary, public television chef Daisy Martinez has devised a number of recipes using the cereal.



REVIEWS/INTERVIEWS:



Helping to Shape the Sound of Philly Soul
When Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff started Philadelphia International Records in the early 1970s, they followed in the footsteps of great regional soul labels like Detroit's Motown and Stax in Memphis.With John Jackson, author of House on Fire: the Rise and Fall of Philly Soul, Kenny Gamble and Thom Bell give their personal insights into this important piece of music history.



JUST WEIRD:



Psycho Path Voted Wackiest Street Name
Farfrompoopen Road, the only road to Constipation Ridge, lost to Divorce Court and Psycho Path, which placed No. 1 in an online poll of the nation's wildest, weirdest and wackiest street names.



HUMOR?:



Tom Tomorrow: It's Just That Simple!

Saturday, February 25, 2006

Another Angle 25 - February - 2006

ANOTHER ANGLE
News others won't tell you



NATIONAL:



Venezuelan-Owned Citgo Faces Congressional Inquiry For Offering Discounted Oil to U.S. Poor
Republican Congressman Joe Barton of Texas has launched an investigation into one of the world’s major oil companies. But he is not investigating whether any of the oil giants are engaging in price gouging at a time when gasoline and heating oil casts are skyrocketing. Instead Barton has set his sights on the only oil company that actually dared to lower its prices last year - at least for the poorest Americans.



Katherine Harris got illegal donations
A defense contractor who pleaded guilty Friday to bribing a California congressman told federal authorities he also funneled illegal campaign contributions to U.S. Rep. Katherine Harris of Longboat Key, who's running for the U.S. Senate.



Dubai's NY Port: Ties to bin Laden, Taliban
No matter what Bush and his supporters say, there is indisputable evidence of tight connections between the United Arab Emirates and leadership of both the Taliban and Al Qaeda. The country is the center of financial activity in the Persian Gulf, and has next to no laws controlling money laundering. It remains a key center of operations for Victor Bout, the notorious arms dealer, with ties to Taliban and Al Qaeda. There were also ties to the infamous BCCI.



Bush's Mysterious 'New Programs'
The combination of the Bush administration’s expansive reading of its own power and its insistence on extraordinary secrecy has raised the alarm of civil libertarians when contemplating how far the Pentagon might go in involving itself in domestic matters.
'Apologies of a Bush voter'



Olympian Shani Davis: Soul on Ice
For the record, Davis is not the first black to win a gold medal at the Winter Olympics. In the 2002 Games in Salt Lake City, Vonetta Flowers won as part of a two-woman bobsled team and Jerome Iginla, a black Canadian, was a member of the gold-winning Canadian hockey team. Davis is the first black to win an individual gold medal.



A Coverup Under Two Presidents: The Unsolved Mystery of the Oklahoma City Bombing
The 1995 bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building—at the time the worst peacetime atrocity committed on U.S. soil, with 168 dead and hundreds more injured—has been largely overshadowed by the destruction of the World Trade Center and all that has followed. But the storyline is nevertheless unnervingly familiar.



The Miseducation of the White Man
When white students don't get to read the writings of Langston Hughes and James Baldwin, they miss out on a part of American History. When white students don't get the whole story about slavery and the real causes of it, the results of it, they really don't know how to interpret what people are talking about when February comes around. And some Blacks are so confused and have "arrived" at such a level, they think that Black History is History.



INTERNATIONAL:



Shell told to pay Nigeria $1.5bn
The Ijaw have been fighting since 2000 for compensation for environmental degradation in the oil-rich region. They took the case to court after Shell refused to make the payment ordered by Nigeria's parliament. Ijaw militants have staged a spate of attacks against Shell facilities recently and are holding seven foreign oil workers hostage.



Ghana to host US military base?
The United States of America is seriously considering the establishment of a military base in Ghana for the sole purpose of protecting its access to West African oil reports the Insight newspaper.



Aristide can return, Haiti's president-elect says
But Preval, who has been told directly by Washington that it opposes the deposed president's return, said the decision should be made by Aristide himself.


Iran: Hit us, we'll hit Israeli nuke site
Dr. Abasi, an advisor to Iran's Revolutionary Guard, said Tehran would respond to an American attack with strikes on the Dimona nuclear reactor and other strategic Israeli sites such as the port city of Haifa and the Zakhariya area.



Iran leader faces Holocaust case
Although Mr Ahmadinejad did not deny the Holocaust on German soil, a law passed in 2005 permits the filing of international cases in German courts.



Yemen rejects US arrest demand
The Yemeni government has asked Washington to provide proof of its accusations against Shaikh al-Zindani in order to take judicial measures.



IRAQ:



Juan Cole: Sistani threatens to turn to Militia
Sistani seems to be threatening to deploy his own militia, Ansar Sistani, if the Iraqi government doesn't do a better job of protecting Shiites and their holy sites. One lesson Sistani will have taken from the bombing of the Askariyah shrine in Samarra is that he is not very secure in Najaf, either.



Golden Mosque Bombing - Who Benefits?
The most important question to ask regarding the bombings of the Golden Mosque in Samarra on the 22nd is: who benefits? Prior to asking this question, let us note the timing of the bombing. The last weeks in Iraq have been a PR disaster for the occupiers.



EXCLUSIVE: Al Jazeera Reporters Give Bloody First Hand Account of April ’04 U.S. Siege of Fallujah:
Please be warned some of the images you are about to see are graphic.
You may need to update / download Free Real Player to view this video. Click on this link to download.
http://snipurl.com/a75b



Video Iraq : The Reckoning
Peter Oborne, political editor of the Spectator, reports on the West's exit strategy for Iraq. He believes the invasion of Iraq is proving to be the greatest foreign policy failure since Munich. Oborne argues that the plan to transform Iraq into a unified liberal democracy, a beacon of hope in the Middle East, is pure fantasy.


BUSH CRIME FAMILY:



UAE gave $1 million to Bush library
A sheik from the United Arab Emirates contributed at least $1 million to the Bush Library Foundation, which established the George Bush Presidential Library at Texas A&M University in College Station. The UAE owns Dubai Port Co., which is taking operations from London-based Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Co.



Dubai and The Bush Dynasty Deal with the Devil
"Few have looked at the facts of the family's rise, but just as important, commentators have neglected the thread -- not the mere occasion -- of special interests, biases, scandals (especially those related to arms dealing), and blatant business cronyism. The evidence that accumulates over four generations [of the Bush family dynasty] is really quite damning."



Knoxville Mayor Victor "Victoria" Ashe Named by Kitty Kelly Book as Cop-Killer George Bush Jr's Skull & Boner Boytoy
It relates to George W. Bush's homosexual relationsip, since about puberty, with Victor Ashe, long-time Mayor of Knoxvillle. When some in Congress began inquiries in the fall of 2003, Ashe in December, 2003, gave up being Knoxville Mayor and was appointed by George W. Bush, the occupant and resident of the White House, as the U.S. Ambassador to Poland. That is, getting Ashe out of the U.S. jurisdiction, not available to nosey Congressmen.



Bush insists outsourcing to India has its benefits
To people in Silicon Valley and around the country concerned about the outsourcing of jobs to India, President Bush on Wednesday offered something to make the practice more palatable. Pizza.



Cheney was 'drunk'
According to Doug Thompson, a written report from a secret service agent guarding Dick Cheney, the Veep was "clearly inebriated" at the time of the shooting. What other cause for delay in reporting the incident if not time to sober up?



ECONOMY:



Norwegian Bourse Director wants oil bourse - priced in euros
With all the speculation regarding an Iranian oil bourse priced in euros - the prospect of a Norwegian oil bourse somehow slipped through the cracks. As far as we know, this is the first time it has been reported in any english language publication.



OP-ED:



Whose Bombs were They
The belief that the attack was the work of American and Israeli covert-operations (Black-ops) is widespread throughout the region as well as among leftist political-analysts in the United States. Journalist Kurt Nimmo sees the bombing as a means of realizing “a plan sketched out in Oded Yinon’s “A Strategy for Israel in the Nineteen Eighties” (the balkanization of Arab and Muslim society and culture.)



Rewarding our Friends and Punishing our Enemies
Black folks have it all wrong; we reward our enemies and punish our friends. We complain, demonstrate, and protest the same people we give our money to, in what amounts to payment for our own oppression.



SCIENCE&TECHNOLOGY:



US conducts subcritical nuclear test
Anti-nuclear groups have criticised and continue to urge Washington to stop the tests, saying they are undermining the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty on nuclear weapons.



FOOD&DRINK:



MU SHU IN MOMENTS
Better than anything you can get at your local takeout joint, this way of making the Chinese classic can be done in record time.



REVIEWS/INTERVIEWS:



Pianist William Chapman Nyaho: Dett, Bonds
Seattle-based pianist William Chapman Nyaho joins Performance Today for a Black History Month celebration. A native of Ghana, he specializes in keyboard music written by composers of the African Diaspora. Nyaho chats with NPR's Fred Child and plays two movements from Nathaniel Dett's Suite "In the Bottoms:" "His Song," and "Honey: Humoresque." He follows with Margaret Bonds' spiritual "Troubled Water."



Twilight for Black Farms
A new book of photographs captures a portrait of America's black farmers as their numbers dwindle. Photographer John Ficara and NPR's Juan Williams, who wrote an essay for the book, talk about the black families who still work on American family farms, despite decades of tough times. "The black farmer, working hard for his own, became the living symbol of the strong, independent black man," Williams writes. "Farming also allowed black families to move into other businesses, from funeral homes to preaching to construction, and thus served as the bedrock of all black wealth in America."



HUMOR?:



"Destroyer Dick"

Monday, February 20, 2006

Another Angle 20 - February - 2006

ANOTHER ANGLE
News others won't tell you



NATIONAL:



37 million poor hidden in the land of plenty
A shocking 37 million Americans live in poverty. That is 12.7 per cent of the population - the highest percentage in the developed world.



Just Your Average Week of the Bush Administration Betraying America --
If what happened -- and this is just a few consecutive days of heinous misdeeds by the Busheviks -- can appear so routine and fail to stir any outcry for defending our Constitution and our personal safety, maybe we are the crazy ones.



Chicago mayor wants police cameras in bars
Mayor Richard Daley wants to require bars open until 4 a.m. to install security cameras that can identify people entering and leaving the building. Other businesses open longer than 12 hours a day, including convenience stores, eventually would have to do the same.



Mom learns police shot her son in the back of head
At the time, RCMP said Bush had become very violent and attacked the officer who shot him. Bush's friends said their buddy was about to be released from the station. He'd been arrested earlier that night for having an open beer outside a hockey game.



The Star-Spangled Double Wide White Trash Heaven
Katrina sums up America as it is today. America is a department store with membership privileges that are determined by the quality of one’s membership package. America is the land of “me first, you later, maybe.” America is a land of blood spilling like waterfalls in many parts of the world that aren’t America. America is a nation of gangsters; little gangsters and big gangsters with a gangsta-rap soundtrack. America is a fast food franchise with sick lumpy animals waiting in line for some more hair of the dog that possessed them.


Study in black and white
The year was 1970. The United States invaded Cambodia. The Beatles broke up. Four college students were killed by National Guardsmen at Kent State. Syracuse high schools were forced to close early several times because of racially charged violence. Maya Angelou published "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings." Floppy disks and bar codes were introduced for the first time.



Memories of Southern Chef Edna Lewis
Chef Edna Lewis had no formal cooking training, yet became known as the grande dame of Southern cooking. Lewis authored several books including A Taste of Country Cooking. She died at the age of 89.



INTERNATIONAL:



10 Dead in Helicopter Crash Off Djibouti
More dead in the war on terror. Didn't know we had troops in Africa did you? This brings more light to the story last month about Naval vessels cupturing "pirates".



Irving pleads guilty to Holocaust denial
These people have so much power that you can go to jail for denying sometihng happened???



Chavez to Rice: 'Don't mess with me, girl'
Chavez has repeatedly accused Washington of trying to topple him, and says the United States will attempt to sow chaos this year as he launches a re-election bid.
Chavez threatens to cut off oil to US if it ‘crosses the line’



Lockerbie - new forensic tests suggest evidence was planted by the CIA
The real culprits, the people who were smuggling heroin on Pan Am planes, may be too powerful to prosecute. The Pan Am report is believed to have concluded that the bomb was not aimed at the killing of Americans in general, but was targeted specifically to kill a small band of DIA operatives that had uncovered a drugs ring run by a CIA unit in Lebanon. The drugs-ring is said to have been set up by Israeli Mossad agents.



UK radiation jump blamed on Iraq shells
“This research shows that rather than remaining near the target as claimed by the military, depleted uranium weapons contaminate both locals and whole populations hundreds to thousands of miles away.”



Two million at free Stones gig
Stones fans were expected to fill half of the two-mile long beach. Eight video screens and 16 sound towers were set up.
I don't usually talk about things like this but, this is just awesome!



BUSH CRIME FAMILY:



WWIII or Bust: Implications of a US Attack on Iran
Witnessing the Bush administration's drive for an attack on Iran is like being a passenger in a car with a raving drunk at the wheel. Reports of impending doom surfaced a year ago, but now it's official: under orders from Vice President Cheney's office.
Selling War against Iran



Conservatives Endorse The Fuhrer Principle
Last week's annual Conservative Political Action Conference signaled the transformation of American conservatism into brownshirtism. A former Justice Department official named Viet Dinh got a standing ovation when he told the CPAC audience that the rule of law mustn't get in the way of President Bush protecting Americans from Osama bin Laden.


ECONOMY:



Bubblicious: Looking at the US Real Estate Market
The rapid growth of risky mortgages -- subprime, no-down-payment, low-documentation, interest-only, "payment-option," and so on -- in recent years is another danger signal.


OP-ED:



What It Means To Be A Republican
The vice president shoots you in the heart and in the face. Then you apologize for all the trouble it’s caused him. That’s what it means to be a Republican. Despite almost hysterical warnings the president stays asleep at the wheel. He does nothing about terrorism and 9/11 happens. He responds by running away to Nebraska. Three days later he makes a supposedly impromptu speech with a bull horn on the rubble of the World Trade Center. He is universally cheered as a hero. That’s what it means to be a Republican. The president puts together false claims to go to war with the wrong country. His party universally supports him. That’s what it means to be a Republican.



A Preposterous Postulate: No Talk of Inequality at King's Funeral
The right-wing doesn’t care about propriety. If they were at all interested in genteel debate or civility, they would have muzzled Ann Coulter years ago. No, their real agenda is squelching any critical voices. To carry out that mission, whenever this president’s detractors are given a forum to make a valid point, the knee-jerk response from the Right is to refocus the debate away from the substance of the message and make the speaker himself the subject of the debate. Labeling the message as ‘inappropriate,’ ‘unpatriotic,’ or ‘aiding the enemy’ has worked in the past to throw the public off the scented trail.



Imminent failure for Washington’s campaign to isolate Hamas
Rice's mission to gather Arabs’ support to cut off diplomatic ties and aid to the anti-Israel Islamic group since it won a parliamentary election last month, will be faced with severe and unexpected resistance.



Werther: a Half-Dozen Questions About 9/11 They Don't Want You to Ask
There is surprisingly little discussion of the basic higher-order political factors surrounding 9/11, factors that do not require knowledge of the melting point of girder steel or the unknowable piloting abilities of the presumed perpetrators. Let us proceed, then, in a spirit of detached scientific inquiry, to ask questions the 9/11 Commission was unprepared to ask.
'President's gone insane' – 9/11 dad



FOOD&DRINK:



Food: Eat, Memory: Sacré Cordon Bleu!
Just because a recipe has a french translation doesn't mean that it is hard to make. This piece includes two from an exam at The Cordon Bleu. Simple and delicious!
Written by the late Julia Child.



REVIEWS/INTERVIEWS:



'Picturing The Banjo' Through American History
"Picturing the Banjo" features paintings, lithographs and other visual media representations of the banjo from the era of slavery through contemporary times. The images track the arrival of an instrument that came from Africa with the slaves. As it was adopted by whites, the instrument fell out of favor with blacks, and became a staple of demeaning minstrel shows.



For kids, some tales of African-American history
Four reviews

Saturday, February 18, 2006

ANOTHER ANGLE
News others won't tell you



NATIONAL:



NAACP: Postpone New Orleans election
"We're worried about the voting rights of our people in New Orleans who are not, for the most part, in New Orleans," said Bruce S. Gordon, NAACP president. "People should still have a say in what happens in the communities that were ravaged by Katrina."



How the Dems Kill Their Own: Remembering Howard Dean
“Howard Dean was assassinated in broad daylight. Unlike Kennedy's ‘grassy knoll,’ Dean's killers are not hiding -- it was the Democratic Party itself, and more specifically the Democratic Leadership Council.



Houston Police Chiefs Wants Cams In Homes!
The agenda behind surveillance cameras is not simply to track the movements of certain individuals. There are not enough watchers to catalogue all the information. The cameras are about behavior control and creating an omnipresent atmosphere whereby the citizen consciously regulates his own behavior so as not to seem suspicious.



Land Of The Puppet People - American Heroin
Knowing that Americans have perfected the art of amnesia, easily forgetting yesterday in a haze of distraction and escapism, possessing the attention spans of gnats and the enlightenment existing during the Dark Ages, ignorant to the world beyond our bubble of excessiveness, finding us addicted to television, videogames and prescription pills, relying on ten second sound bites and the subjective drivel of talking heads for information, our minds made distorted by the fantasy and fiction we watch incessantly, with free thought now made extinct by the massive abandonment of reading books, with mental lethargy now the rule rather than the exception.



The Fourteen Defining Characteristics of Fascism
Flash Presentation



The Flip Side of the Bahamas
What's happening on Eleuthera is also taking place on Bimini, the Abacos and the other, lesser-known islands of the
Bahamas. Until recently, going to the Bahamas meant the casinos of Freeport, the tourist hustle of Nassau or the Las Vegas-style resorts of Paradise Island. Never mind that the Bahamas is an archipelago as long as Florida. The 30 or so other inhabited islands are so off the tourist radar that they are simply lumped together with the 700 uninhabited islands as the Out Islands.



INTERNATIONAL:



When Your Home is Converted into a Jail
Closing doors and windows of Palestinian citizen' buildings On the Israeli settlers new road.



Nigeria oil 'total war' warning
The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta has given oil companies and their employees until midnight on Friday night to leave the region. It recently blew up two oil pipelines, held four foreign oil workers hostage and sabotaged two major oilfields. The group wants greater control of the oil wealth produced on their land.



The Dangers of a Middle East Nuclear War
In the showdown with Tehran over its alleged nuclear weapons program, Pentagon "guidelines" would allow, subject to presidential approval, for the launching of punitive bombings using "mini-nukes" or tactical thermonuclear weapons.



Russia Warns U.S. Against Striking Iran
With tension mounting over Iran's nuclear programs, Gen. Yuri Baluyevsky, the chief of Russia's general staff, warned the United States against attacking Iran. He said that while Iran's military potential cannot compare to the United States', "it is hard to predict how the Muslim world will respond to the use of force against Iran." "This may stir the whole world, and it is crucial to prevent anything like that," Baluyevsky was quoted as saying.


IRAQ:



The Basra video should lay to rest a scurrilous lie
The truth is that ever since the fall of Saddam Hussein's tyrannical regime, abuses and atrocities committed against Iraqi civilians have been a regular, at times daily, occurrence throughout the country, including in Basra. These have been committed by American, British and Iraqi official forces.



BUSH CRIME FAMILY:



Bush To Sell National Forests To 'Save' Them
IN A NEAT BIT OF CIRCULAR reasoning, the Bush administration is proposing to sell parts of America's national forests in order to save them. The U.S. Forest Service's budget is too thin to manage its lands and maintain its programs, and the president's answer to the problem, rather than increasing the Forest Service's budget, is to cut it further and pay for programs with proceeds from the sale of forest land.



ECONOMY:



Ron Paul: The End of Dollar Hegemony :
In November 2000 Saddam Hussein demanded Euros for his oil. His arrogance was a threat to the dollar; his lack of any military might was never a threat. In 2001, Venezuela’s ambassador to Russia spoke of Venezuela switching to the Euro for all their oil sales. Within a year there was a coup attempt against Chavez, reportedly with assistance from our CIA. Now, a new attempt is being made against the petrodollar system. Iran, another member of the “axis of evil,” has announced her plans to initiate an oil bourse in March of this year. Guess what, the oil sales will be priced Euros, not dollars.



OP-ED:



Redneckville
It gets harder and harder to be quiet around these kool-aid-brainwashed white boys who are hurrying the end of democracy and the blooming of full-fledged fascism in this nation. Like a time traveller seeing Hitler supporters in the 1930's, I see these average to below average intelligence, sports fanatic, gun toting, self righteous, hyper masculinized guys as a major part of THE problem.



Free speech and its fuzzy edges
In the US, a fine and often problematic distinction has been carved out between free speech and hate speech. Behind this distinction lies the US past as a slave-based economy and its present as a racist society and second-class citizenship of African-Americans continuing today.


SCIENCE&TECHNOLOGY:



Quantum Telecloning
Imagine Captain Kirk being beamed back to the Starship Enterprise and two versions of the Star Trek hero arriving in the spacecraft's transporter room. It happened 40 years ago in an episode of the TV science fiction classic, and now scientists at the University of York and colleagues in Japan have managed something strikingly similar in the laboratory - though no starship commander was involved.



FOOD&DRINK:



CHICKEN COBB SALAD
A store-bought rotisserie chicken means almost no cooking (all you have to do is boil the eggs and crisp up the bacon). This looks beautiful and tastes great, so it's suitable for entertaining. It's also adaptable to the ingredients you have on hand, since the base dressing goes great with everything.


REVIEWS/INTERVIEWS:



Samuel L. Jackson Brings Tension to 'Freedomland'
Samuel L. Jackson stars as a cop working a carjacking case in a new movie called Freedomland. Jackson's character is at the center of the tension in the racially charged crime drama. He talks with Michelle Norris about race, tough-guy roles and his long, varied film career.



HUMOR?:



Sutton Impact: The Republican Funeral Patrol

Friday, February 17, 2006

Another Angle 17 - February - 2006

ANOTHER ANGLE
News others won't tell you



NATIONAL:



March 20 to 26, 2006: Iran-USA, beginning of a major world crisis,
If this Alarm is so precise, it is that LEAP/E2020’s analyses concluded that all possible scenarios now lead to one single result: we collectively approach a "historical node" which is henceforth inevitable whatever the action of international or national actors. At this stage, only a direct and immediate action on the part of the US administration aimed at preventing a military confrontation with Iran on the one hand, and at giving up the idea to monetarise the US foreign debt on the other hand, could change the course of events.


McKinney warns of new underclass of "Katrina Homeless"
In the absence of decisive Executive action, an under-funded FEMA made its own executive decision to shelter hundreds of thousands of survivors in hotels, paying in some cases rates in excess of $400 per night, resulting in a windfall for hotel chains during their slow season, but depleting FEMA’s budget. Now, with summer business coming, the hotels want the survivors out and FEMA is evicting tens of thousands of families from temporary housing.



White House Defends Sale of Port Operations to Arab Firm
The Bush administration on Thursday rebuffed criticism about potential security risks of a $6.8 billion sale that gives a company in the United Arab Emirates control over significant operations at six major American ports.



Chertoff's Sweetheart Deal For Israeli-Owned Carnival Cruise Cruise Line
In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, through a hastily arranged deal with Carnival Cruise Lines, $236 million from U.S. taxpayers will flow to a tax exempt Israeli-founded corporation registered in Panama. Before federal assistance even reached the victims of Hurricane Katrina, Carnival Cruise Lines had received a profitable deal to provide three ships to house evacuees from New Orleans and the Gulf Coast.



Bolton seeks to replace UN chief
The U.S. ambassador opened Security Council discussions on the next U.N. secretary-general, calling the choice of a replacement for Kofi Annan probably the most important decision the world body will make this year.




San Francisco Bay View - National Black Newspaper of the Year
Venezuela's CITGO draws scorn from U.S. right wing, praise from the people
While thousands of families in New York, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Delaware and Pennsylvania are heaping praise on Venezuelan oil company CITGO for the discounted heating oil they have received this winter to help them survive the cold, the ultra-conservative American Family Association is calling for a boycott of CITGO. An action alert on the AFA web page refers to Chavez as a "dictator" who "has vowed to bring down the U.S. government."



Fla. Officials Release Boot Camp Tape
On the 80-minute tape, which has no sound, as many as nine guards can be seen wrestling Martin Anderson to the ground and restraining him. The boy appeared limp for most of the ordeal and never appeared to offer significant resistance. At one point, a guard struck him from behind, lifting his feet off the ground. At the beginning, as the guards are pinning him against a pole, they struck him three times with their knees. The physical confrontation lasted about 30 minutes.



Officer who shot unarmed black man won't face federal...charges
Roach chased Thomas, 19, into an unlit alley and shot him out of sight of other officers. Later, Roach said he had not actually seen a weapon, but fired when Thomas suddenly jerked his hands from his waist.



Schoolhouse Rock for the GOP
I'm just a bill.
Yes, I'm only a bill.
And I'm sitting here on Capitol Hill.



Batman takes on al-Qaida
Frank Miller, who has inked his way through 120 pages of the 200-page opus, told a recent comic book convention that the novel was an unashamed "piece of propaganda" in which Batman "kicks al-Qaida's ass".



INTERNATIONAL:



China Rushes to Complete $100B Deal With Iran
The deal would clear China Petrochemical Corp., also known as Sinopec, to develop the Yadavaran oil field in southern Iran. Analysts assume that the Iranian field could produce as much as 300,000 barrels of oil per day, making it one of the larger overseas operations for a Chinese company.



US Pursues "Inoculation" Strategy to Curb Chavez
In what she termed an "inoculation" strategy, Rice said she had sought support from Europe and other Latin American nations to highlight U.S. charges that the populist Chavez abuses his power to target political opponents and business leaders. "The international community has just got to be much more active in supporting and defending the Venezuelan people," Rice told a congressional hearing.



Rice Warns Arab States Not to Fund Hamas
The Palestinian Authority gets a majority of its approximately $1.9 billion annual budget from overseas sources. Without money from the United States and Europe - or Palestinian customs fees collected by the Israelis - a Hamas-led government would be nearly broke. Hamas leaders have said they will look elsewhere for money, and are expected to appeal to Arab states and to Iran. ``It will be very interesting to see if that $1.9 billion is available,'' Rice said with evident skepticism.
-
U.S. asks Palestinians to return $50 million



Japan turns off the heat
Japan imports 16% less oil than it did in 1973, although the economy has more than doubled. Billions of dollars were invested in converting oil-reliant electricity-generation systems into those powered by natural gas, coal, nuclear energy or alternative fuels.


The Dollar Dumped
Government divisions and public sector firms have been ordered to use the euro for foreign goods and services by Syrian Prime Minister Naji al-Otari.



IRAQ:



Japan plans Iraq troop withdrawal
The government`s withdrawal plan includes moving the 600 troops to Kuwait by May as a first step, and recalling them to Japan by July, after cleaning their equipment and vehicles to pass quarantine inspections in Japan.



BUSH CRIME FAMILY:



York: The Little-Noticed Order That Gave Dick Cheney New Power
There has been much talk about the powerful role Dick Cheney plays in the Bush White House. Some of that talk has been based on anecdotal evidence, and some on entirely fanciful speculation. But Executive Order 13292 is real evidence of real power in the vice president's office.
-
Can Cheney really declassify at will?



ECONOMY:



War threats follow Countries dumping US dollar
Dumping the dollar - Syria, Iran, Iraq, Venezuela.



OP-ED:



Blackonomics: Celebrate Black History by Celebrating Ken Bridges
On October 11, 2002, driving back from Virginia to Philadelphia, Ken stopped at a service station, and the next thing he knew he was on the ground. Felled by a sniper’s bullet, I know he was thinking about his family, his dear and loving “Queen” Jocelyn, and his six children whom he could not wait to see and tell about the deal he and Al had just made for the MATAH Network.


America’s enemy is injustice
Open your eyes, American people, and stop dancing and playing and partying and drinking and smoking dope while your country is going to hell. Wake up and take your responsibility.



Averting Election Theft in Haiti
A blatant and shameful attempt to steal a presidential election was blocked yesterday in Haiti, the Western Hemisphere's poorest country. Haven't the Haitian people suffered enough? The man-made terror and violence coupled with natural disasters that have been inflicted upon the people of Haiti will be recorded in history as catastrophic events that caused tremendous loss of life and an unbearable and tragic existence for the Haitian people.



SCIENCE&TECHNOLOGY:



New Videos Help Explain Mysterious Flashes
Scientists have photographed the mysterious flashes and come up with interesting names for them: elves, blue jets, tigers and sprites. The flashes are associated with thunderstorms, and each type is incredibly brief and behaves differently.
See the video in
Quicktime or Real Video



FOOD&DRINK:



CROCKPOT CHICKEN, SAUSAGE & SHRIMP GUMBO
When the weather gets cold, this is a family favorite! It takes a little prep, but simmering in the crockpot unattended all day makes it worth it!



REVIEWS/INTERVIEWS:



Interview: US Rep. McKinney on Katrina, Race, Class
“What we learned was that the National Guard and the City [of New Orleans] requested buses, and FEMA held them up. If the Department Of Homeland Security (which oversees FEMA) had just done what it was asked to do,” lives could have been saved and people could have been spared from suffering, the Congresswoman told Atlanta Progressive News. “It’s just incredible.”



Self-Described Economic Hit Man John Perkins: “We Have Created the World’s First Truly Global Empire
"We use many techniques, but probably the most common is that we'll go to a country that has resources that our corporations covet, like oil, and we'll arrange a huge loan to that country from an organization like the World Bank or one of its sisters, but almost all of the money goes to the U.S. corporations, not to the country itself, corporations like Bechtel and Halliburton, General Motors, General Electric, these types of organizations, and they build huge infrastructure projects in that country: power plants, highways, ports, industrial parks, things that serve the very rich and seldom even reach the poor."



Now, Video Resurrects the Radio Star
The video-sharing Web site YouTube.com has changed the way some people see the Internet. But it's also changing how people hear vintage artists, from the late Wilson Pickett to the up-and-coming Arctic Monkeys.



JUST WEIRD:



Horse penis comes to Beijing menus
China's cuisine is renowned for being "in your face" - from the skinned dogs displayed at food markets to the kebabbed scorpions sold on street stalls - and there is no polite way of describing Guo-li-zhuang.



HUMOR?:



Meet Dick Cheney's Legal Team!

Wednesday, February 15, 2006

Another Angle 15 - February - 2006

ANOTHER ANGLE
News others won't tell you



NATIONAL:



US Royalty Plan to Give Windfall to Oil Companies
New projections, buried in the Interior Department's just-published budget plan, anticipate that the government will let companies pump about $65 billion worth of oil and natural gas from federal territory over the next five years without paying any royalties to the government.



Exclusive: Did Abramoff aid apartheid?
It was a quiet night in June 1985 in the equatorial heat of Jamba, a small town in the heartland of Angola, the oil and diamond-rich African nation that was divided by a bloody civil war for 30 years. Jamba at the time was a base for Jonas Savimbi's UNITA movement, a tribal secessionist army bizarrely funded by Communist China and the CIA at the same time. A top-secret meeting was then underway between Savimbi and his boosters, led by a young American Republican activist named Jack Abramoff. He was there representing an organization he founded, the International Freedom Foundation. The group was codenamed "Pacman."



PNAC: Rebuilding America's Defenses - A Biopsy on Imperialism
Within the PNAC website is a statement (2000) called Rebuilding America’s Defenses (pdf) This document is based upon Vice President Cheney’s Defense Policy Guidance, drafted in 1992 by the Defense Department’s Paul Wolfovitz and Lewis Libby.



Conyers: Legalities of NSA taps 'close calls'
John Conyers' complete statement for tomorrow's conference in its entirety



Rice Asks Congress for $75 Million for Iran
"This is to support democracy. It will be used to improve radio broadcasts, begin satellite broadcasts and include money for scholarships for Iranian students to come to the United States," the official, who asked not to be named because the announcement was not yet official, said on Wednesday.



Mike Whitney: Hurricane Katrina; “National Failure” or Criminal Negligence
The media’s “failure of imagination” theory is an interesting bit of revisionism which conflicts with eyewitness testimony.



MSNBC Scrubbing Cheney Alcohol Connection?
This raises some serious questions here. What happened? Where did the quote go? Did the ranch owner really say this? Is it really being covered up, or is this just some mistake?



Hackett pullout again exposes political divide
The political novice withdrew under intense pressure from party leaders in Washington, clearing the field for Rep. Sherrod Brown - a 30-year veteran of Democratic politics with more than $2.5 million in the bank.



Dean: 'Skullduggery' in D.C. killed Hackett
Howard Dean told a student audience in Miami that "some skulduggery in Washington" improperly led to Hackett's decision to end his bid. And he said Democrats will have a tough time winning if similar things happen to others.



2 Major Construction Unions Plan to Leave A.F.L.-C.I.O.
The unions also said they would soon announce the creation of a rival building trades group, the National Construction Alliance, that would include the carpenters, the bricklayers, the iron workers and the Teamsters.


Couple indicted for caging children
A grand jury indicted Michael and Sharen Gravelle on Tuesday on 16 counts of felony child endangering, eight misdemeanor counts of falsifying adoption applications and a felony count of lying under oath when being qualified for adoption funding.


Negro Leaguers Earn More Spots in Hall of Fame
Baseball takes another step in its recognition of the Negro Leagues' contributions to the sport when 39 candidates are voted on at the end of this month in a special election for the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y. The legacy of the Negro League is best showcased at the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City, Mo.



INTERNATIONAL:



Israel excludes Palestinians from fertile valley
Israel has effectively annexed the Jordan Valley - about a third of the occupied West Bank - by barring almost all Palestinians from entering the region.



U.S. and Israelis Are Said to Talk of Hamas Ouster
The intention is to starve the Palestinian Authority of money and international connections to the point where, some months from now, its president, Mahmoud Abbas, is compelled to call a new election. The hope is that Palestinians will be so unhappy with life under Hamas that they will return to office a reformed and chastened Fatah movement.



China Says Web Controls Follow the West's Lead



IRAQ:



Iraq: Horrific New Torture Pictures Released



BUSH CRIME FAMILY:



Troubling Questions About Cheney's Boss
As for the slow reporting of the incident—with a nod to Watergate we will call it "the 18 ½ hour gap"—why is the media dumping it mainly on Vice when perhaps it should be versa? Isn’t the president in charge here?


OP-ED:


Bin Laden tapes are as phony as Sept. 11's connection to Islam
The myth that 9/11 had something to do with Muslims has poured millions, if not billions, into Arabic and Islamic studies. I finished my Ph.D. last year, so all I have to do is keep my eyes in my pocket and my nose on the ground, parrot the party line, and I'll be on the fast track to tenure track. The trouble is, it's all based on a Big Lie.



SCIENCE&TECHNOLOGY:



Air Force Aims for Weather Control
Someday the U.S. military could drive a trailer to a spot just beyond insurgent fighting and, within minutes,
reconfigure part of the atmosphere, blocking an enemy's ability to receive satellite signals, even as U.S. troops are able to see into the area with radar.



HEALTH&FITNESS:



Deadly bird flu spreads to Germany, Austria, Iran
No human cases have been found in Nigeria, the first African country to confirm cases of H5N1, and health officials said on Tuesday that two children suspected of having the virus probably did not have it after all.



FOOD&DRINK:



N'AWLINS SPAGHETTI
I love Itallian food, and I love Cajun food, and this recipe proves that they were meant to be together, at least some times, any way. ENJOY.



REVIEWS/INTERVIEWS:



Finding the Lighter Side of African-American Lit
Is Black literature too serious? Writer Paul Beatty thought so, that's why he compiled a new anthology of African American humor, from Simple to Sharpton.



HUMOR?:



Tom Tomorrow: Cartoonists Gone Wild!



Breaking Hair News: Condi's Gigantic Square Afro
We feel compelled to share with you this fantastic photo of our Secretary of State, sporting a coiffure so fabulous it puts Angela Davis to shame