Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Another Angle 27 - June - 2007

ANOTHER ANGLE
News others won't tell you



History was made on this day:
1872
- Paul Laurence Dunbar, short story writer, is born in Dayton, Ohio. He will be so talented and versatile that he will succeed in two worlds. He will be so adept at writing verse in Black English that he will become known as the "poet of his people," while also cultivating a white audience that appreciated the brilliance and value of his work. "Majors and Minors" (1895), Dunbar's second collection of verse, will be a remarkable work containing some of his best poems in both Black and standard English. When the country's reigning literary critic, William Dean Howells reviews "Majors and Minors" favorably, Dunbar becomes famous. And Howells' introduction in "Lyric of Lowly Life" (1896) will help make Dunbar the most popular African American writer in America at the time. Dunbar will join the ancestors after succumbing to tuberculosis in 1906. The U.S. Postal Service will issue a commemorative stamp in his honor on May 1, 1975.


NATIONAL:



METHODISTS NEW TARGET OF THE 'KOSHER NOSTRA'
The United Methodist Church's call to divest from companies linked to Israel "is bordering on anti-Semitism," Anti-Defamation League Director Abraham Foxman told Ynetnews on Wednesday. Foxman furiously condemned recommendations made by the New England branch of the Methodist Church for its members to divest "from twenty companies identified as supporting the Israeli occupation in Palestine."



Mineta Confirms Cheney Ordered Stand Down
“During the time that the airplane was coming into the Pentagon, there was a young man who would come in and say to the Vice President…the plane is 50 miles out…the plane is 30 miles out….and when it got down to the plane is 10 miles out, the young man also said to the vice president “do the orders still stand?” And the Vice President turned and whipped his neck around and said “Of course the orders still stand, have you heard anything to the contrary!?



Bush Directive for a "Catastrophic Emergency" in America: Building a Justification for Waging War on Iran?
NSPD 51 grants extraordinary Police State powers to the White House and Homeland Security (DHS), in the event of a "Catastrophic Emergency". The Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counter terrorism (APHS/CT), who is slated to play a key role in the eventuality of Martial law, is a key White House adviser, Frances Fragos Townsend.
Operation Northwoods



New Book Deal for Black POW Shoshana Johnson
Shoshana said the details of her new deal with Simon & Schuster are being hammered out by a lawyer. Though the story is not yet titled, a publication date of February, 2008 has been set.



INTERNATIONAL:



Excitement and cynicism in the air in Ghana as oil is found
The government of Ghana Monday announced that it has discovered crude oil in commercial quantity at a district in its western region. Tullow Oil Plc, a UK oil and gas exploration company reportedly made the discovery last Friday.

IRAQ:



Conditions in Iraq ‘terrifying’ says U.N. envoy
He warned that political reforms and reconciliation were moving slowly with the same problems facing the various political factions unchanged since the U.S. invasion of 2003.



OP-ED:



A case for reparations: Add It Up!
We left our fathers on Normandy Beach, in Palermo, in Rome, in Naples, in Sicily. We left our bodies on the streets of Paris, in Belgium. Add it up. We joined the war. They used us in Hawaii, in Bataan, in Corregidor, in the Solomon Islands, in Iwo Jima. We lost our lives fighting for America. And after the war was over, America rebuilt Germany. Now the West German economy is the strongest in all of Europe. We rebuilt Japan. Now the Japanese are world leaders, but Black people who helped you win the war, they are homeless in Atlanta, homeless in Chicago, homeless in Detroit, homeless in Boston, in the streets looking for a job, looking for a handout. We helped you to win, but you offered us nothing. I say, add it up. Add it up. Add it up!


Caucasian, Please! America's Cultural Double Standard For Misogyny ...& Racism
There are those in the media, mostly white males (but also some black pundits as well), who now want the Black community to take a look at hip-hop music and correct the diabolical "double-standard" that dwells therein. Before a real conversation can be had, we have to blow-up the myths, expose the lies and cast a powerful and discerning light on the "real" double-standards and duplicity.



Corporate greed, corruption, and the coming collapse of America as we know it
The U.S. government, once crafted as a system that would serve the interests of the people, has devolved into a system of plutocracy where corporations control both the government and the people



Is Bush Al Qaeda?
We keep hearing that the greatest threat to America is Islamic terrorism; most specifically al Qaeda led Islamic terrorism. We were told, even though the evidence points elsewhere, that al Qaeda was responsible for the attacks of September 11th, 2001. We keep hearing how al Qaeda hates our way of life and hates our freedom. Yet during the past seven years it has been the Bush administration that has done the most harm to the American way of life and it is the Bush administration that has eliminated a great many of our freedoms.



ECONOMY:



It’s Official: The Crash of the U.S. Economy has begun
It’s official. Mark your calendars. The crash of the U.S. economy has begun. It was announced the morning of Wednesday, June 13, 2007, by economic writers Steven Pearlstein and Robert Samuelson in the pages of the Washington Post, one of the foremost house organs of the U.S. monetary elite.



Will Your House Do the NASDAQ Meltdown?
House prices will not collapse to nothing like the most ridiculous of the Internet stocks, but homes in the most-inflated markets could lose 30 to 50 percent (in real terms) from their bubble peaks. Some people bought homes in these markets expecting to make great returns on their investments.



Banks 'set to call in a swathe of loans'
"Excess liquidity in the global system will be slashed. Banks' capital is about to be decimated, which will require calling in a swathe of loans. This is going to aggravate the US hard landing."



HEALTH&FITNESS:



Aspartame linked to cancer: study
The US Food and Drug Administration says there is no need for an urgent review of the safety of aspartame, despite a new study showing the sweetener may cause cancer.
A US consumer group has called for the review after Italian researchers published a new study that showed aspartame - widely used in soft drinks - might cause leukaemia, lymphoma and breast cancer in rats.



FOOD&DRINK:



A Four-Corners Fourth
Cooking for friends on the Fourth of July can be as easy as slapping some hot dogs and hamburgers on the grill and icing beer — or as complicated as slowly smoking a side of beef all day and serving it with pitchers of Tom Collins.



CHERRY BARBECUE SAUCE
I made a variation of this sauce for a party recently. Everyone loved it! This fruity, not-too-sweet barbecue sauce is terrific on any type of grilled poultry, pork, or even salmon. For convenience, it can be made one day ahead.



ENTERTAINMENT:



Savion Glover Pounds Out a Feast of Rhythms
Two years ago, Savion Glover tapped while an 11-person orchestra played Vivaldi and other famous dead composers, then induced the classical musicians to riff off a jazz ensemble's patterns. He has stripped down his latest production so that feet on mic'd wood are all we hear. The man's in love with sounds and rhythms, and he wants us to experience that interplay in its purest form.



"Live Free or Die Hard"
In "Live Free or Die Hard," a picture heavy on old-fashioned stunts and relatively low on CGI trickery, Willis' character, the indestructible yet comfortingly vulnerable John McClane, has the jujitsu kicked out of him by a svelte villainess; drives cars into places they shouldn't be driven, resulting in smash-ups that cut and bruise the bejesus out of him; and is variously flung, dragged, kicked and punched, in numerous combinations and permutations, like a discarded Raggedy Andy. That McClane always bounces, or at least stumbles, back doesn't lessen the impact.



Oyeyemi's 'Opposite House'
Nigerian author Helen Oyeyemi takes readers on a journey of magical realism in her new book, The Opposite House. The young writer talks about her work.



Miles Davis: Miles' Styles
Davis' embrace of other traditions necessitated a larger canvas on which to paint, and he sought out the right musicians for a bigger group. Using guitarist John McLaughlin and a three-keyboard ensemble of Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea and Joe Zawinul, Davis recorded In a Silent Way in 1969. That same year, Davis recorded an album that became the standard for the nascent jazz-fusion movement: Bitches Brew. The double album was an abrupt commingling of jazz, rock and funk.


HUMOR?:



07/07/07: Is This Your Lucky Day?



Tom Toles