Another Angle 27 - March - 2006

ANOTHER ANGLE
News others won't tell you



NATIONAL:



Ohio City Investigated for Voting Discrimination
The Justice Department is planning to file a voting rights suit against a city in Ohio. The last time the department brought a lawsuit alleging a pattern of discrimination against black voters was in 2001.



Abramoff may be subpoenaed in slaying case
A judge has approved subpoenas for former lobbyist Jack Abramoff and an ex-business partner to answer questions about the mob-style slaying of the owner of a gambling fleet they bought.



Family of 'Lion Sleeps Tonight' Writer to Get Millions
Millions of dollars in royalties from the song "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" will go to the heirs of the late South African composer Solomon Linda, who died in 1962. In 1950, when blacks had few negotiating rights under apartheid, Linda sold the song, written in 1939, for fewer than two dollars. His three surviving daughters live in South Africa.



Scalia gives obscene gesture at church


Fulani Espouses Independent Movement For Black Voters
In the 1988 presidential election, she became the first woman and the first African American to get on the ballot in all 50 states. Fulani, in 1992, ran again as an independent presidential candidate and got on the ballot in 40 states. Fulani is chairperson of the Committee for a Unified Independent Party, an organization, co-founded by her and Jacqueline Salit in 1994, dedicated to bringing various independent groups together to challenge the bipartisan hegemony in American politics.



Illinois blacks, Jews in row over Farrakhan remarks
I put this in for perspective only. This story comes from an Israeli publication



Boehner says he won’t let anti-Israel laws through
“As the new House majority leader, I can assure you that under my leadership, legislation that is in any way perceived as anti-Israel will not be considered in the House of Representatives,” Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio) told the annual American Israel Public Affairs Committee conference, to thunderous applause.
The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy



Las Vegas slot machines are more trustworthy than electronic voting machines.



INTERNATIONAL:



Nigeria to Hand Over Liberia's Taylor for Trial
Taylor is accused of aiding and directing a vicious rebel movement in neighboring Sierra Leone and trading guns and diamonds with insurgents infamous for hacking off the limbs of civilians. He has been indicted on charges of committing war crimes by a U.N. tribunal.



IRAQ:



Troops accused of mosque massacre
A senior aide to Sadr, in comments capable of inflaming passions among the radical cleric's supporters, accused US troops of shooting dead more than 20 unarmed worshippers at the Mustapha mosque after tying them up. The mosque's faithful follow Sadr but the aide denied they were Mehdi Army gunmen.
Iraqi interior minister calls joint US-Iraqi raid 'unjustified'



Questions over Iraq's reconstruction cash
BBC Real Player Video



Battle for Baghdad 'has already started'
Many Iraqi leaders now believe that civil war is inevitable but it will be confined, at least at first, to the capital and surrounding provinces where the population is mixed. "The real battle will be the battle for Baghdad where the Shia have increasing control."



The Gruesome Reality of Operation Swarmer
But while the public is fed rosy propaganda, the reality is far more gruesome. Take, for example, the operation in Isshaqi, a small village near Samarra. At 1:30am on Tuesday, March 21, the American troops, accompanied by helicopters , raided the modest rural home of a primary school teacher, Faiz Mratt. According to his neighbor Mohammad Al-Majma, the 27-year-old school teacher, his wife, their three children, his sister, her three children, his father and a woman who was visiting them were all arrested, tied, and beaten, and then the American troops opened fire on the family. "After they executed them, the troops put explosives in the house and blew it up," said Mohammad, crying. "They killed even the farm animals"



BUSH CRIME FAMILY:



Bush's Requests for Iraqi Base Funding Make Some Wary of Extended ...stay
Even as military planners look to withdraw significant numbers of American troops from Iraq in the coming year, the Bush administration continues to request hundreds of millions of dollars for large bases there, raising concerns over whether they are intended as permanent sites for U.S. forces.
Early Warning: U.S. plans New Bases in the Middle East



Bush's No Child Left Behind Forcing Schools To Cut Subjects Beyond Reading and Math



Bush makes the ultimate commitment to Israel
"But now that I'm on Iran, the threat to Iran, of course, the threat from Iran is, of course, their stated objective to destroy our strong ally Israel. That's a threat, a serious threat. It's a threat to world peace; it's a threat, in essence, to a strong alliance. I made it clear, I'll make it clear again, that we will use military might to protect our ally, Israel."


ECONOMY:



U.S. personal bankruptcy filings hit record high last year



OP-ED:



The Black Commentator - Cover Story: The Need for Struggle ...Blacks at a Political Impasse
The Black political-business class positioned itself to accept the largesse of the much more powerful white capitalist class. It took a generation for the white corporate denizens to realize that their money was their power, and that they should use it to influence the now-established Black political-business class. White corporate America convinced itself, fitfully, to sit down with Negroes who would sit down with them, and come to agreement. They found a willing audience. It is now clear that the class that was catapulted to Black leadership was - with some exceptions - out for itself. Too much blood has been spilled to be wasted on them.



Eugene Robinson: Condoleezza Rice for president?
She jets constantly around the world, from crisis to catastrophe, and when she’s soaring 42,000 feet above some ocean she can’t hear all the noise back home. That’s probably just as well. “Run, Condi, run” wouldn’t offend her ears, but I doubt she’d appreciate Spike Lee’s advice: “Condi, stop smoking that crack!”



HEALTH&FITNESS:



Meatpacker Sues Feds Over Mad Cow Test
A Kansas meatpacker sued the government on Thursday for refusing to let the company test for mad cow disease in every animal it slaughters. Creekstone Farms Premium Beef says it has Japanese customers who want comprehensive testing. The Agriculture Department threatened criminal prosecution if Creekstone did the tests, according to the company's lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Washington. Testing for mad cow disease in the United States is controlled by the department, which tests about 1 percent of the 35 million cattle, or about 350,000, that are slaughtered each year. The department is planning to reduce that level of testing.



African Americans face higher Alzheimer's risk
Researchers and the Alzheimer's Association have labeled the disease as a silent epidemic, one that is a growing health crisis among black Americans.



FOOD&DRINK:



Sweetness of Spring: Strawberry Clafoutis
No fruit announces spring as beamingly as strawberries, let's ponder what can be made with the first sprightly rubies when they hit the market stalls. Gobbling them up straight from the box is an excellent option, but if you'd like to enroll them in a little baking and concentrate their jam-like flavor, I can suggest a strawberry clafoutis. Clafoutis is the epitome of the French grandmotherly dessert: unpretentious, easy to make, and blissfully comforting.



REVIEWS/INTERVIEWS:



Roberta Flack, In Full Voice on America's Soundtrack
Flack was a public-school teacher when she began performing during Sunday brunch at a bar in Washington, D.C., in 1968. She eventually began singing nights, and her shows became so popular that the bar, a Capitol Hill spot named Mr. Henry's, had to turn people away. Mr. Henry's became a hot spot, and Flack got a recording contract with Atlantic Records. After a 1970 appearance on a Bill Cosby television special, her career caught fire. Flack's music definitely resonates with a younger generation of artists -- from the Fugees, who covered "Killing Me Softly," to Rapper Kanye West, who sampled her for his song "Hey Mama." Flack says she's grateful to still be performing at age 67, but she takes nothing for granted



Ex-Delta Force: Did Bush start WWIII?
A founding member of the elite counter-terrorist unit, Delta Force, suggested that President Bush's invasion of Iraq may have started World War III, according to the Los Angeles Daily News.



Creativity Is All Around Us
This I Believe is an NPR project that invites you to write about the core beliefs that guide your daily life. This piece is from Frank X Walker. An assistant professor of English at Eastern Kentucky University . The author of three poetry collections, he was awarded a prestigious Lannan Literary Fellowship in 2005.



HUMOR?:



Tom Tomorrow: Terrorist-Lovers: Preventing Conservatives From Growing Up