Wednesday, August 23, 2006

Another Angle 23 - August - 2006

ANOTHER ANGLE
News others won't tell you



Osama's funeral announcement
No use hunting for a dead guy, right?



NATIONAL:



Katrina rhetoric fails to calm growing storm
Some in New Orleans resent the focus on black poverty, arguing that many middle-class people, white and black, also lost homes to Katrina. But, as the anniversary nears, even the briefest drive through the city reveals an obvious truth: wealthier neighbourhoods are recovering much quicker than poor black ones.



Scientists make key stem cell advance
Scientists in the US have created human embryonic stem cells without destroying embryos, a discovery that appears to get round a basic ethical objection to stem cell research.
OOPS!



9/11 'hero' image undone
What if Rudy's take-charge image was mostly a load of bravado and PR? What if the actual decisions he made - before, during and after the terror attacks - were directly responsible for the city's inability to deal effectively with crucial aspects of the crisis?



New 'Doll Test' Produces Ugly Results
The video taped doll test resulted from a collection of writings compiled on issues of importance to Black girls in high school. Complexion was a recurring theme.



Key Founder of Black Political Party Dies
On August 21, John Hulett died at his home in Lowndes County, Alabama. He was one of the founders of the Lowndes County Freedom Organization in 1966. This was a political party that sought to elect African-Americans to county office.



INTERNATIONAL:



Israeli troops raid southern Gaza
Israeli soldiers backed by helicopter gunships, tanks and armored personnel carriers, moved into Palestinian-controlled areas near the main Israel-Gaza cargo crossing on Tuesday, conducting house-to-house searches and arrests.
Israel Suspends Review of Lebanon War



Report: Iran replaces US as Middle East power
"The United States, with Coalition support, has eliminated two of Iran's regional rival governments - the Taleban in Afghanistan in November 2001 and Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq in April 2003 - but has failed to replace either with coherent and stable political structures."



Afghanistan Descends Into Chaos Once Again
"The Americans abandoned Afghanistan," when they were around, people were making money. The Taliban had run away but they were not defeated and the Americans knew that too. Yet the US decreased the number of its troops."



China moves to end funeral stripteases
Striptease send-offs at funerals may become a thing of the past in east China after five people were arrested for organizing the intimate farewells



IRAQ:



Baghdad's Walls Are Closing In
Conditions that lead Pentagon generals to say civil war is close are already polarizing many neighborhoods. Although Shiites and Sunnis still live side by side in some places, about 200,000 Iraqis, most of them from Baghdad, have left their mixed neighborhoods and taken refuge in communities where they can live among their own.



BUSH CRIME FAMILY:



President Bush's letter authorizing the use of force in Iraq
Only a few days ago, President Bush made the statement that Iraq had nothing to do with 9-11, and that nobody in his administration had made that claim. Yet here in his letter of March 19th, 2003, specific reference is made to 9-11 in activating the Congressional Authorization for the use of force in Iraq.
Bush Now Says What He Wouldn’t Say Before War: Iraq Had ‘Nothing’ To Do With 9/11



ECONOMY:



'Nastier, deeper' recession coming
This is the biggest housing slump in the last four or five decades: every housing indictor is in free fall, including now housing prices. The decline in investment in the housing sector will exceed the drop in investment when the Nasdaq collapsed in 2000 and 2001



OP-ED:



Rationality and Israeli violence
The Israeli self-image of rationality, self- confidence, restraint, pragmatism, and marshal moral superiority are delusions and myths, constructed to protect the Israeli psyche, manipulated by the state to keep alive the specter of existential terror in the Israeli public and to disguise the state's raison d'être, expansion and ethnic cleansing in Palestine.



SCIENCE&TECHNOLOGY:



Giant nests perplex experts
To the bafflement of insect experts, gigantic yellow jacket nests have started turning up in old barns, unoccupied houses, cars and underground cavities across the southern two-thirds of Alabama.



HEALTH&FITNESS:



Study Cites Danger of Carrying Extra Weight
A study from the National Cancer Institute finds that 50-year-olds who are even a little overweight have a greater chance of dying prematurely. And the heavier you are, the greater the risk.



FOOD&DRINK:



PEACHY GRILLED CHICKEN SALAD
Grilling the peaches adds something special.



REVIEWS/INTERVIEWS:



Leadbelly's 'Old Man' and the Work Song Tradition
On Dec. 14, 1941, Huddie Ledbetter recorded a song called "Old Man." Ledbetter, a singer best known as Leadbelly, is most widely remembered for "Goodnight Irene," "Midnight Special," and "Rock Island Line." He said "Old Man" was a piece that the waterfront laborers -- the roustabouts -- sang as they loaded the steamboats before making the trip up the Mississippi.



HUMOR?:



Fiore: How to Relax and Enjoy Global Warming



Monday, August 21, 2006

Another Angle 21 - August - 2006

ANOTHER ANGLE
News others won't tell you



Israel Violates the Cease Fire: "They are here again!"
The helicopters dropped fighters and two vehicles that were made to look like they were from the Lebanese army. They were dropped in the mountains surrounding Baalback, and as they were coming down to the valley, Hizbullah fighters intercepted them in the fields. Al-Manar TV reported that the commandos responded to the fighters' questions about their identity as being Lebanese army.



NATIONAL:



Katrina: disaster profiteers pocket millions in deals
With much of New Orleans still in ruins and its population half of what it was before the hurricane, a new report claims millions of dollars has been squandered by wasteful processes that have seen 90 per cent of the first wave of reconstruction contracts awarded to firms outside Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. Local firms have been frozen out while immigrant workers have been exploited and often unpaid.



More white minority cities emerge
An analysis of census data released last week has shown that the white non-Hispanic population in another three of America's 50 largest cities has become a minority. In Phoenix, Tucson and Denver, the white population has recently fallen below 50 percent, according to William H. Frey, a demographer with the Brookings Institution.



God, the Black Man and the Five Percenters
Here's what the group called the Five Percent Nation believes: Ten percent of the people of the world know the truth of existence, and those elites opt to keep 85 percent of the world in ignorance and under their controlling thumb. The remaining percentage are those who know the truth and are determined to enlighten the rest. They are the Five Percent Nation.



Can Marriage End Poverty?
A few months ago, in inner-city Baltimore, a small group of graduates held a big celebration. These couples completed a five-month class in how to be a couple -- how to build a life together. None of them is married yet, but they all have children.



INTERNATIONAL:



More Ethiopian troops enter Somalia
The soldiers are reportedly taking over the security of an airport which was abandoned when government troops defected to the Islamic militia that controls the capital, Mogadishu, and much of the south of the country.



Israeli officer: No solution for Nasrallah, he must die - News from Israel, Ynetnews
In an interview with the New York Times, a senior Israeli soldier said that though there is a ceasefire between Israel and Hizbullah , Israel intends to ensure that Hizbullah is not rearmed by Syria and to continue in her efforts to assassinate Hizbullah's leader, Hassan Nasrallah .



Return to Kandahar: The Taliban threat
Fear permeates Kandahar. Eyes watch every passer-by, every car. Everyone is suspect. People shrink away from me when I ask to interview them. They run when they see a camera. The few brave souls who agree to talk do so either anonymously or because they are desperate. There is no war, no shooting, no rockets. At least not yet, although the Taliban wave is reconquering Afghanistan, and fighting is spreading through Kandahar province.



IRAQ:



Final Death toll is 322 killed, injured in armed attacks in Baghdad




BUSH CRIME FAMILY:



Amateur Warlords
For a leader who styles himself "the war president," U.S. Commander-in-Chief George W. Bush's military record now stands at 0 for 4. Even Italy's born-again "imperial Roman conqueror," Benito Mussolini, fared better.



Pardons are forever
Prediction: Before leaving office, President Bush will issue a shockingly large number of presidential pardons to operatives who, with the administration’s blessing, ventured far outside the law to wage Bush’s “war on terror.” Bush may even owe some of his underlings use of the pardon pen, since they relied in good faith on radical legal opinions crafted by White House lawyers to justify an “anything goes” response to enemies real and imagined.



ECONOMY:



Employer advises Dumpster-diving for axed workers
Bankrupt Northwest Airlines Corp. advised workers to fish in the trash for things they like or take their dates for a walk in the woods in a move to help workers facing the ax to save money.



OP-ED:



Animal Farm – The Black Version
You may remember Animal Farm, the 1945 classic written by George Orwell. Many in my generation had to read the book in high school. Over the years, I have come to see the relevance of the message in Animal Farm, even more as I look at the condition of our people.



The Eight Hundred Pound Gorilla in the Room
They’ve got him sedated at the moment. It’s all they can do. They’ve got a large number of the people outside the room sedated too. Then there’s another impressive number of people who are confused by all the colored lights and crowd noises as well as those who are hiding under the bed, literally or metaphorically and… those who just don’t care.



HEALTH&FITNESS:



FDA approves viruses as food additive
A mix of bacteria-killing viruses can be safely sprayed on cold cuts, hot dogs and sausages to combat common microbes that kill hundreds of people a year, federal health officials said Friday in granting the first-ever approval of viruses as a food additive.



For Minorities, Organ Waiting List a Dangerous Place
Ed Gordon talks with Dr. Lynt Johnson, chief of the Division of Transplant Surgery and vice chair of the Department of Surgery at Georgetown University Medical Center in Washington, D.C.



FOOD&DRINK:



Mumbai's 'Hitler' eatery angers Indian Jews
Hitler's Cross', which opened last week, serves up a wide range of continental fare and a big helping of controversy, thanks to a name the owners say they chose to stand out among hundreds of Mumbai eateries.



Mushroom Brie Burger
Delicate Brie is a beautiful complement to the subtle, meaty flavor of these marinated mushrooms. Kids love these vegetarian burgers and they’re healthy and easy to prepare.



REVIEWS/INTERVIEWS:



The Other 'Cosby' Show, Now on DVD
Between I Spy and The Cosby Show, Bill Cosby played coach Chet Kincaid... and made sure many other black actors got TV time. Elvis Mitchell and Scott Simon reflect on The Bill Cosby Show, now on DVD.



Senegalese Trio Daara J
Daara J's raps flow in English, French and the West-African language of Woolof. Along with typical hip-hop elements like turntables and samplers, Daara J uses traditional African instruments like the talking drum.



HUMOR?:



This Modern World