With the totally staged pulling down of the largest statue of Saddam Hussein in Baghdad by US soldiers and draping the AmeriKKKan flag over its head before it was stomped and smashed, the US propaganda machine gave the world a prophetic picture of what's in store for the Iraqis. The media op in Baghdad was designed to further obfuscate the issues, give the yahoos back home the vicarious feeling of victory and the illusion that a war which is really about oil, geostrategic positioning, the protection of the US dollar's global hegemony and the furtherance of Israeli interests was about justice, liberation, and peace. 

H.L. Mencken once remarked, "No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people." We are about to witness the truth of that statement as it plays out in Iraq. As you read this, the corporate/government fascist coalition are getting set to rake in the spoils from their latest caper. Corporations with links to the Bush-Cheney administration, who have been major contributors to the Republican Party and or Bush get first dibs on secret, lucrative, no bid contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Familiar names like Bechtel which is being criticized for it's overruns on domestic projects is one of the beneficiaries of Bush largess as are Dick Cheney's former employer Halliburton and several of its subsidiaries. 

Halliburton gives almost exclusively to the Republican Party. Reports are that 90% of its donations went to the party of Cheney and Bush. SteveDoring Services of America got the contract to manage the port of Umm Qasr, while companies like Fluor Corp, Washington Group International, and Louis Berger Group all heavily connected to Bush or major donors to the Republican Party will walk away with mad money in contracts. They say, "It's not what you know but who you know." Obviously knowing the front men in the War Party helps. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was a former liaison for Bechtel in its negotiations with Iraq to build a pipeline in that country. Prior to accepting the nod to be Baby Bush's VP "Tricky" Dick Cheney was the CEO of Halliburton.

According to British newspapers, (little of this information is being reported in the US media) the common threads to all the secret contracts are major contributions to the Republican Party, personal dealings or relationships with key War Party members like Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld, former dealings with or employment in the United States Agency of International Development (USAID). Much of the money for these contracts is coming from the recently passed 80 billion dollar package the pliant and sycophantic Congress recently passed to finance the war and reconstruction of Iraq. That's 80 billion the government doesn't have. 

Bush squandered the surpluses and is running up record deficits. That 80 billion dollars is coming  not from the US Treasury but loans from international bankers, needed money that should be going for roads, schools, and social programs here. This is why Bush and Co were so adamant about going to war; they and their cronies are set to make huge profits off the carnage the military has wrought on the innocent people and infrastructure of Iraq and on the reconstruction. 

The Bush cabal have hooked up a classic win-win scenario for themselves. They'll make zillions off this and subsequent wars, but what will we get out of it? Will this blood money trickle down to the masses? Not hardly. Oil prices may go down, some white folks may get jobs overseas working reconstruction projects but in the hood, it will be business as usual. That is, until the next invasion and with a maniac like Bush at the helm that could be any day now.

posted 15 April 2003

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AALBC.com's 25 Best Selling Books

 

Fiction

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#5 - Stackin' Paper 2 Genesis' Payback by Joy King
#6 - Thug Lovin' (Thug 4) by Wahida Clark
#7 - When I Get Where I'm Going by Cheryl Robinson
#8 - Casting the First Stone by Kimberla Lawson Roby
#9 - The Sex Chronicles: Shattering the Myth by Zane

#10 - Covenant: A Thriller  by Brandon Massey

#11 - Diary Of A Street Diva  by Ashley and JaQuavis

#12 - Don't Ever Tell  by Brandon Massey

#13 - For colored girls who have considered suicide  by Ntozake Shange

#14 - For the Love of Money : A Novel by Omar Tyree

#15 - Homemade Loves  by J. California Cooper

#16 - The Future Has a Past: Stories by J. California Cooper

#17 - Player Haters by Carl Weber

#18 - Purple Panties: An Eroticanoir.com Anthology by Sidney Molare

#19 - Stackin' Paper by Joy King

#20 - Children of the Street: An Inspector Darko Dawson Mystery by Kwei Quartey

#21 - The Upper Room by Mary Monroe

#22 – Thug Matrimony  by Wahida Clark

#23 - Thugs And The Women Who Love Them by Wahida Clark

#24 - Married Men by Carl Weber

#25 - I Dreamt I Was in Heaven - The Rampage of the Rufus Buck Gang by Leonce Gaiter

Non-fiction

#1 - Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention by Manning Marable
#2 - Confessions of a Video Vixen by Karrine Steffans
#3 - Dear G-Spot: Straight Talk About Sex and Love by Zane
#4 - Letters to a Young Brother: MANifest Your Destiny by Hill Harper
#5 - Peace from Broken Pieces: How to Get Through What You're Going Through by Iyanla Vanzant
#6 - Selected Writings and Speeches of Marcus Garvey by Marcus Garvey
#7 - The Ebony Cookbook: A Date with a Dish by Freda DeKnight
#8 - The Isis Papers: The Keys to the Colors by Frances Cress Welsing
#9 - The Mis-Education of the Negro by Carter Godwin Woodson

#10 - John Henrik Clarke and the Power of Africana History  by Ahati N. N. Toure

#11 - Fail Up: 20 Lessons on Building Success from Failure by Tavis Smiley

#12 -The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander

#13 - The Black Male Handbook: A Blueprint for Life by Kevin Powell

#14 - The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates by Wes Moore

#15 - Why Men Fear Marriage: The Surprising Truth Behind Why So Many Men Can't Commit  by RM Johnson

#16 - Black Titan: A.G. Gaston and the Making of a Black American Millionaire by Carol Jenkins

#17 - Brainwashed: Challenging the Myth of Black Inferiority by Tom Burrell

#18 - A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose by Eckhart Tolle

#19 - John Oliver Killens: A Life of Black Literary Activism by Keith Gilyard

#20 - Alain L. Locke: The Biography of a Philosopher by Leonard Harris

#21 - Age Ain't Nothing but a Number: Black Women Explore Midlife by Carleen Brice

#22 - 2012 Guide to Literary Agents by Chuck Sambuchino
#23 - Chicken Soup for the Prisoner's Soul by Tom Lagana
#24 - 101 Things Every Boy/Young Man of Color Should Know by LaMarr Darnell Shields

#25 - Beyond the Black Lady: Sexuality and the New African American Middle Class  by Lisa B. Thompson

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Super Rich: A Guide to Having it All By Russell Simmons Russell Simmons knows firsthand that wealth is rooted in much more than the stock  market. True wealth has more to do with what's in your heart than what's in your wallet. Using this knowledge, Simmons became one of America's shrewdest entrepreneurs, achieving a level of success that most investors only dream about. No matter how much material gain he accumulated, he never stopped lending a hand to those less fortunate. In Super Rich, Simmons uses his rare blend of spiritual savvy and street-smart wisdom to offer a new definition of wealth-and share timeless principles for developing an unshakable sense of self that can weather any financial storm. As Simmons says, "Happy can make you money, but money can't make you happy."

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The New Jim Crow Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness By Michele Alexander Contrary to the rosy picture of race embodied in Barack Obama's political success and Oprah Winfrey's financial success, legal scholar Alexander argues vigorously and persuasively that [w]e have not ended racial caste in America; we have merely redesigned it. Jim Crow and legal racial segregation has been replaced by mass incarceration as a system of social control (More African Americans are under correctional control today... than were enslaved in 1850). Alexander reviews American racial history from the colonies to the Clinton administration, delineating its transformation into the war on drugs. She offers an acute analysis of the effect of this mass incarceration upon former inmates who will be discriminated against, legally, for the rest of their lives, denied employment, housing, education, and public benefits. Most provocatively, she reveals how both the move toward colorblindness and affirmative action may blur our vision of injustice: most Americans know and don't know the truth about mass incarceration—but her carefully researched, deeply engaging, and thoroughly readable book should change that.—Publishers Weekly

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The White Masters of the World

From The World and Africa, 1965

By W. E. B. Du Bois

W. E. B. Du Bois’ Arraignment and Indictment of White Civilization (Fletcher)

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Ancient African Nations

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The Death of Emmett Till by Bob Dylan  /  The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll  /  Only a Pawn in Their Game

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