Another Angle 13 - January - 2007

ANOTHER ANGLE
News others won't tell you



NATIONAL:



The War Powers of Congress
Don't let your Representatives and Senators shirk their Constitutional duties in military matters by claiming they don't have the power.



Pentagon Seeks to Increase Military
The Pentagon on Thursday proposed increasing the size of the Army and Marine Corps by a combined total of 92,000 troops and announced it will recall to duty sooner than originally planned some National Guard and Reserve troops who already have served yearlong tours in Iraq or Afghanistan.



Vietnam All Over Again
By recommending to President Bush that U.S. troops in Iraq should be increased, with no clear plan for achieving victory there, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates risks following in the footsteps of Clark Clifford. As with Secretary Clifford, Secretary Gates has succeeded the architect of a U.S. military failure. Like Clifford, Gates has proven incapable of calling for a dramatic change in course.



Why we are both Black and African - understanding the true meaning of black identity
There is a real need for the global black community to re-establish our vision of ourselves, re-establish the factual basis for who and what we are as a global and cosmic humanity as well as reasserting our historical, scientific and theological pre-eminence.



'Pepsi Challenge' and the Birth of Niche Marketing
In 1940, Pepsi chief executive Walter Mack had the unprecedented idea of putting together a "negro-markets" department. Edward Boyd led the team of 12 black professionals, making Boyd one of the first black executives in corporate America. He and his group developed a marketing strategy seeking brand loyalty among African Americans. The strategy was one of the first attempts at niche marketing.



Jane Bolin, first black woman to graduate from Yale Law School dead at 98
Jane Bolin, the first black female judge in the United States and the first black woman to graduate from Yale Law School, has died. She was 98. Bolin, born April 11, 1908, in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., was the daughter of a successful lawyer. Initially discouraged by a Wellesley College adviser from pursuing a law degree because of her race and gender, Bolin graduated from Yale Law in 1931



INTERNATIONAL:



U.S. Somalia air raids hit nomads, 70 dead - Oxfam
Under international law, there is a duty to distinguish between military and civilian targets," Oxfam added, citing its local partner organisations in Somalia for the information. Washington sent a warplane into Somalia on Monday to try and take out what U.S. officials say are top al Qaeda suspects hiding with the Islamists.



Somalia : another war "Made in USA"
This is a war of the USA against all the peoples of the Horn of AfricaThis is not a war between Ethiopia and Somalia
The US policy in the region is leading to a long-term instability of the whole area and to genocide. One can be sure that the peoples of the region will unite in a broad anti-imperialist front and realize finally brotherly relations between all nationalities living there.




IRAQ:



Iraqi regime set to hand over oil reserves to US energy giants
The Independent, which obtained a leaked version of the law, reported Sunday, "The Iraqi Council of Ministers is expected to approve, as early as today, a controversial new hydrocarbon law, heavily pushed by the US and UK governments, that will radically redraw the Iraqi oil industry and throw open the doors to the third-largest oil reserves in the world. It would allow the first large-scale operation of foreign oil companies in the country since the industry was nationalised in 1972." The newspaper added that the new law would be a "radical departure from the norm for developing countries" and would be the first of its kind for any major oil producer in the Middle East, where Saudi Arabia and Iran, the world’s number one and two largest producers, "both tightly control their industries through state-owned companies with no appreciable foreign collaboration," as do most members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).
FLASHBACK: RED, WHITE, AND BLUE STORM RISING



Iraqi children: Picking garbage, killed dismantling ordnance, or sold into brothels
I hope you’re proud of yourselves. Have a nice day.



BUSH CRIME FAMILY:



I BLEW IT...BUT NOW YOU SHOULD TRUST ME...



George W. Bush: A Symptom of Disease
Our imperial leader, an impish little man with clear sociopathic symptoms, is incapable of empathy for the struggles of the common people, as those born into wealth and privilege often are. The man with his finger on the nuclear detonator is mentally ill, incapable of remorse—a fact that should terrify every world citizen. I do not say this out of malice or to demean the president; it is simply a statement of fact based upon quantifiable evidence that any student of psychology would easily recognize.



OP-ED:



The 'Surge' Is a Red Herring
The "surge" is merely a tactic to buy time while war with Iran and Syria can be orchestrated. The neoconservative/Israeli cabal feared that the pressure that Congress, the public, and the American foreign policy establishment were putting on Bush to de-escalate in Iraq would terminate their plan to achieve hegemony in the Middle East. Failure in Iraq would mean the end of the neoconservatives' influence. It would be impossible to start a new war with Iran after losing the war in Iraq.



The US-Iran-Iraq-Israeli-Syrian War
If Russert's account is correct, there could be questions raised about whether Bush has lost touch with reality and may be slipping back into the false pre-invasion intelligence claims about Hussein threatening the United States with "a mushroom cloud."



SCIENCE&TECHNOLOGY:



The Lost Lunar Landing Tapes
NASA put a man on the moon - then lost the videotape. A grizzled crew of ex-rocket jockeys are on a star-crossed mission to find it.



FOOD&DRINK:



GLAZED STRAWBERRY PIE
This pie consists of a crisp crust filled only with fresh strawberries held together by a fruit juice glaze. I discovered that a fruit glaze also works well with fresh raspberries or a mixture of raspberries and currants. The glaze preserves the freshness of the fruit for two days.



REVIEWS/INTERVIEWS:



Nina Simone Gets 'Remixed and Reimagined'
Posthumous remix projects tend to be well-intentioned and awkward, the musical equivalent of those commercials featuring Fred Astaire dancing with a vacuum cleaner. Nina Simone: Remixed & Reimagined is the first of a series of releases on which mostly European remixers work over a legendary artist's oeuvre. Simone's collection wisely leaves her signature numbers ("I Loves You Porgy," "My Baby Just Cares for Me") unmolested, and gives the rest of the tracks the chill-out treatment. Much of the disc would sound at home playing in a trendy Parisian hotel lobby, or at Moby's house.



HUMOR?:



"Warming of Mass Destruction"