Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Another Angle 21 - March - 2007

ANOTHER ANGLE
News others won't tell you



A bombshell that nobody heard
If Hersh is to be believed - and as a major journalistic figure for the past near-40 years he certainly deserves to be taken seriously - the Bush administration seems to be repeating the worst mistakes of the Reagan administration and of the anti-Soviet war in Afghanistan, which led inexorably to the greatest acts of blowback in US history. Given what we already know about the Bush administration, Americans should be up nights worrying about what all this means now as well as down the line. For Congress, the media and Americans in general, this report should have been not just a wake-up call, but a shout for an all-nighter with NoDoz.




NATIONAL:



Obama's Israel Problem
Sen. Barack Obama isn’t quite sure how he feels about the lopsided situation between Israel and Palestine. Less than two weeks after Obama gloated to AIPAC about his love for Israel, he unexpectedly admitted the truth while campaigning in Iowa recently. “[N]obody is suffering more than the Palestinian people...” said Obama, “the Israel government must make difficult concessions for the peace process to restart...” The truth hurts indeed, and Obama has been feeling the wrath of the pro-Israel activists since his statement last week.



Khalid Shaikh Mohammed "Confessed" To Attacking Bank Founded After His Arrest
Khalid Shaikh Mohammed's alleged confession testimony has been thoroughly discredited after it emerged that one of the targets he identified, the Plaza Bank, was not founded until 2006, four years after the alleged Al-Qaeda mastermind's arrest. In his confession, KSM claims, "I was responsible for planning, training, surveying, and financing for the New (or Second) Wave of attacks against the following skyscrapers after 9/11: ...Plaza Bank, Washington state." KSM was arrested in March 2003. According to the Plaza Bank's website, the organization was founded in early 2006, making it impossible for KSM to have even known of the bank's existence before 2003, never mind plotted against it.


Dozens in GOP Turn Against Bush's Prized 'No Child' Act
More than 50 GOP members of the House and Senate -- including the House's second-ranking Republican -- will introduce legislation today that could severely undercut President Bush's signature domestic achievement, the No Child Left Behind Act, by allowing states to opt out of its testing mandates.



INTERNATIONAL:



Iran says to sell oil in 'every currency'
n has already said it will carry out all its oil-industry related equipment purchases in euros instead of dollars and previously said it has informed its oil buyers that they should pay Iran in euros for the crude oil they purchase.



IRAQ:



Video shows bomb blowing up U.S. occupation forces vehicle
A Web video surfaced Sunday showing an alleged insurgent crawling under a U.S. military vehicle in Iraq and purportedly planting explosives in full daylight. Seconds later, the video cuts to an explosion ripping the vehicle apart.



BUSH CRIME FAMILY:



USA Firings: Rove's Plan to Win in '08
This is Earth Shattering. Alberto Gonzalez may have perjured himself before congress over this. According to the author, Karl Rove is obsessed with the 2006 catasophy. Rove is convinced, beyond any shadow of a doubt, that the reason why republicans lost the house and senate was because of corruption. Specifically, it was because of US Attorneys who investigated and indicted republicans, such as Duke Cunningham. Karl Rove wants two things to happen in time for the 2008 election. First, he wants to stop the US Attorney investigations of republicans. The fact that several of the fired US Attorneys had been activity invesigating republicans (such as Carol Lam, who was close to an indictment of republican Representative Jerry Lewis) seems to confirm this. Secondly, he wants to manufacture scandals against democrats, and hide the overt corruption behind the legitimacy of a US Attorney. He wants to make it so that republicans are no longer the party of corruption, and that democrats take their place. And if that means ignoring actual republican corruption, and inventing charges against democrats, then they will need the right US Attorneys to do this. They have already purged many of the US Attorneys who were investigating republicans, and replaced them with US Attorneys who would invesigate democrats. Expect a wave of false indictments to come against democrat after democrat as we get closer to the election.
Flashback: Bush removal ended Guam investigation




ECONOMY:



Why the subprime bust will spread
History has shown that the Fed, more often than not, has made wrong decisions based on faulty projection. Greenspan has been rightly criticized for letting a housing price "bubble" develop, equating it to the one that swept technology stocks to stratospheric levels before bursting in 2000. Greenspan argues the Fed's role is to mop up after bubbles burst, since bubbles are hard to spot and deflate safely. But accidents are also difficult to predict, and that difficulty is not a good argument against buying insurance.



OP-ED:



‘We Must Resist!'
Why can't we know the truth about 9/11 and this war on terror? Why can't we immediately repeal the Secret Evidence Law, the Patriot Act, and the Military Tribunals Act?Why can't we get back that 2.3 trillion dollars Rumsfeld admits is missing and use it to fully fund education and health care and infrastructure? They're asking poor, devastated university students to return their Hurricane Katrina money, but I don't see anyone going after Blackwater mercenaries, the law enforcement officials who took federal money and then denied Katrina survivors safe passage over public thoroughfares. They're not going after the Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff whose incompetent behavior directly led to the delayed response, causing as-yet unmitigated pain and suffering on the people of New Orleans, and whose continued bumbling results in one of the largest depopulations of an American city in memory.



It's Hardly Pocahontas
England's first successful colonists in America have been branded as rapists and murderers who imported slavery and oppressed the local Indian population.The controversial portrait of pioneer life in 17th-century Jamestown has become a central part of this year's 400th anniversary of the colony, whose settlement led directly to the birth of the world's most powerful nation.



SCIENCE&TECHNOLOGY:



Who Owns Your Image on the Internet?
The popularity of camera phones and lightweight digital cameras means previously private and embarrassing moments are now made public. Who owns your image on the Internet, and are there limits to privacy?



HEALTH&FITNESS:



Learning to Live with a Disfiguring Disease
A health worker who is the son of missionaries has started a support group to help people suffering from a disfiguring and painful condition called lymphatic filariasis.



FOOD&DRINK:



Beans and Cornbread: Feeding Souls a Mile Deep
Pinto beans simply seasoned with a chunk of fatback and a little salt and pepper bubbled inside a large cast-iron pot. As the miners sipped mugs of hot coffee, my mother laid out bowls of chow chow relish, minced onions and cole slaw to accompany the beans. Out of the oven came the cornbread in its own cast-iron pan, still sizzling with the essence of bacon drippings.

Cornbread and beans are the type of food, simple and warm, that reminds us all of where we come from. And for West Virginians, they represent the true soul of the mountains.



Upside-Down Honey Cheesecakes
These crustless individual cheesecakes have a gooey, honeyed topping.



REVIEWS/INTERVIEWS:



Teacher, Jazz Artist Draws Inspiration From Family
Tia Fuller's students know her as a dedicated teacher, but to her fans, she's a soulful composer known for sultry performances on the jazz saxophone.
When she isn't traveling the country teaching masterclasses and lecturing, Fuller records her own compositions and performs with jazz luminaries such as the T.S. Monk Septet, the Don Byron Big Band and the Duke Ellington Big Band.



HUMOR?:



"Gonzo"