Another Angle: Another Angle 27 - March

ANOTHER ANGLE
News others won't tell you

The War on Drugs Is Really a War on Minorities

Consider this: According to a 2006 report by the American Civil Liberties Union, African Americans make up an estimated 15% of drug users, but they account for 37% of those arrested on drug charges, 59% of those convicted and 74% of all drug offenders sentenced to prison. Or consider this: The U.S. has 260,000 people in state prisons on nonviolent drug charges; 183,200 (more than 70%) of them are black or Latino.

NATIONAL:

Giuliani’s Closet
Rudy Giuliani’s closet is filled to overflowing, and its contents are dropping out all over just as he ratchets up his presidential bid. And there’s a lot more than bones in those dark recesses: go here for the full (450 pages!) story, but I’ll give you the short (and spicy) version:It’s all about the “weirdness factor,” as a secret study done by the Giuliani election team and leaked to the “Smoking Gun” website puts it. There’s the matter of his first marriage, to his cousin, Regina Peruggi.

14-year-old sentenced to 7 years for shoving a school hall monitor?

I am a 14-year-old black freshman who shoved a hall monitor at Paris High School in a dispute over entering the building before the school day had officially begun and was sentenced to 7 years in prison. I have no prior arrest record, and the hall monitor--a 58-year-old teacher's aide--was not seriously injured. I was tried in March 2006 in the town's juvenile court, convicted of "assault on a public servant" and sentenced by Lamar County Judge Chuck Superville to prison for up to 7 years, until I turn 21. Just three months earlier, Superville sentenced a 14-year-old white girl, convicted of arson for burning down her family's house, to probation.

Teacher, Student Recall a Segregated Classroom

It was here, in a school that the county neglected to provide with textbooks, that Diehl learned firsthand the damaging effects that institutional racism and Jim Crow politics would have on her young charges.She soon discovered that she was learning more from her students than they had the chance to learn from her.

INTERNATIONAL:

Russian intelligence sees U.S. military buildup on Iran border
"The latest military intelligence data point to heightened U.S. military preparations for both an air and ground operation against Iran," the official said, adding that the Pentagon has probably not yet made a final decision as to when an attack will be launched.

He said the Pentagon is looking for a way to deliver a strike against Iran "that would enable the Americans to bring the country to its knees at minimal cost."

He also said the U.S. Naval presence in the Persian Gulf has for the first time in the past four years reached the level that existed shortly before the invasion of Iraq in March 2003

China shifts to euros for Iran oil
China's state-run Zhuhai Zhenrong Corp, the biggest buyer of Iranian crude worldwide, began paying for its oil in euros late last year as Tehran moves to diversify its foreign reserves away from U.S. dollars.
Gulf economies to 'drop the dollar'

Mossad in Iraq - Google Video

Somalia: Tsunami Again Hits Puntland

Moscow warns U.S. Iran policy may spark "clash of civilizations"

The Haunting Legacy of Slavery
The enslaved persons in the Americas were the first slaves since the days of the Romans whose condition of bondage and status as chattel was passed down from parent to child; and in a cruel irony, as the transatlantic trade in enslaved Africans died out the price of the slaves who were already in place, working under horrendous conditions in the US, many Caribbean islands, and some South American nations, merely rose.
Video: Ghana Slaves

IRAQ:

Iraq’s break-up will lead to ‘100 Years War’

BUSH CRIME FAMILY:

Making a Killing: America's Private Army and the Business of War
With the job being so risky, what would attract so many to private companies? Well, Blackwater has been known to pay its employees $365,000 per year, compared to the $36,000 an average US soldier makes. No wonder so many former military personnel are signing up with a private employer instead of re-enlisting.

Cheney: Iraq pullout would hurt Israel
"We must consider, as well, just what a precipitous withdrawal would mean to our other efforts in the war on terror, to our interests in the broader Middle East, and to Israel," the U.S. vice president said over the weekend to a Republican Jewish Coalition leadership gathering in Latana, Fla.

ECONOMY:

U.S. could withstand effects of debt sale: Bernanke
Federal Reserve Board chairman Ben Bernanke says U.S. markets could probably withstand the effects of a sell-off of treasury bills by foreign investors.

The future looks very bleak
The crash of the US economy has begun. Although the reasons for the now-accelerating economic fiasco have been in place for decades, the chickens are only now coming home to roost. The murder weapons used to kill the economy are "free trade," outsourcing, illegal immigration, special work visa programs, and unrestrained government spending, which have all contributed to the death of what was just a few decades ago the economic powerhouse of the world.

OP-ED:

The Coming War With Iran
Both Ron Paul and Antiwar.com columnist Philip Giraldi have warned about the likelihood of a Gulf of Tonkin-style incident in the Persian Gulf, and their predictions have, sadly, proved all too accurate. That it involves the British, not the Americans, is a double victory for the on-to-Tehran crowd: the war-weary Brits, who recently announced the withdrawal of their troops from southern Iraq, will presumably be dragged along in the wake of the coming U.S. military assault as their sailors are paraded before the cameras in Tehran. Once again, "coalition" forces are about to take down a Middle Eastern government, and they are already on the move.

"Jesus Had It Coming..."
"...and I'm glad we killed him!" Thus went one of the more virulent of my recent hate mailers, who went on to proclaim the racial superiority of his being Jewish. He never said what, in particular, set him off, or if, in fact, it was anything I ever had written. His intent seemed merely to stun and outrage me. He failed.

Terrorized by 'War on Terror'
The damage these three words have done -- a classic self-inflicted wound -- is infinitely greater than any wild dreams entertained by the fanatical perpetrators of the 9/11 attacks when they were plotting against us in distant Afghan caves. The phrase itself is meaningless. It defines neither a geographic context nor our presumed enemies. Terrorism is not an enemy but a technique of warfare -- political intimidation through the killing of unarmed non-combatants.

SCIENCE&TECHNOLOGY:

20 million Vista licenses equals a lot of unhappy customers
The first group of unhappy Vista users seem to be those who have bought a new PC but who are trying to get all their old hardware and software to work on it. The core PC system runs fine with Vista (as would be expected) but things change when legacy hardware and software is installed.

HEALTH&FITNESS:

More Black Women Trying Cosmetic Surgery, Some Experts Question Motives
“Many Black women are trying to achieve the white standard of beauty because many go to get the nose pointed. Whose standard is that?” Hare said. “The person getting it may see it as a self-improvement, but when you really sit down with a therapist, then you find out where the self-hatred comes in.”

FOOD&DRINK:

Don't Forget the Fennel

If you've never cooked with fennel, you're not alone. For years, I avoided the bulbous green and white vegetable labeled "sweet anise" because I associated it with black licorice. Who in their right mind would want to taste black licorice at the dinner table?

But then I learned anise and "sweet anise" are two very different things.

CHICKEN AND FENNEL SALAD SANDWICHES
Roasting the chickens and using both dark and white meat results in chicken salad with deep flavor. (Buying rotisserie chickens will cut down on the timing, but be sure to choose minimally seasoned birds.) Fennel, standing in for the usual celery, along with fennel seed and fresh basil, adds an unexpected note of sophistication.

REVIEWS/INTERVIEWS: