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