Each week, we cover the stories that are just left out of the US propaganda machine. News that the people in charge, the corporations and your government want keep from the public eye.
---------
Guardian UK"
"A $95,000 question: why are whites five times richer than blacks in the US?
A huge wealth gap has opened up between black and white people in the US over the past quarter of a century – a difference sufficient to put two children through university – because of racial discrimination and economic policies that favour the affluent.
A typical white family is now five times richer than its African-American counterpart of the same class, according to a report released today by Brandeis University in Massachusetts.
White families typically have assets worth $100,000, up from $22,000 in the mid-1980s. African-American families' assets stand at just $5,000, up from around $2,000. A quarter of black families have no assets at all..."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/may/17/white-people-95000-richer-black
-->Startling news about America's accelerating income gap between blacks and whites. Not of interest, however, to our newspaper of record, The NY Times, that pitches its stories to the affluent. We have a black president; things are just fine.
---------------
Common Dreams:
"...This warmongering attitude was on display again Monday, when a possible breakthrough regarding Iran's refining of nuclear material - its agreement to ship a substantial amount to Turkey in exchange for nuclear rods for medical research - was treated more as a negative than a positive.
The New York Times promptly framed the agreement reached by Iran, Turkey and Brazil as 'complicating sanctions talk,' while the Washington Post rushed out an analysis with the headline, 'Iran creates illusion of progress in nuclear negotiations.'
The Post's analysis followed a Saturday editorial denouncing Brazil's President Luiz Ignacio Lula da Silva for even trying 'yet another effort to engage' the extremist clique of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.' "
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/05/18-1
-->Let's not make any secret of the fact that both the NY Times and the Washington Post are spoiling for a fight with Iran. Any progress that Iran makes will only be characterized as "illusion." The real illusion is an American media free from Pentagon propaganda.
---------------
The Raw Story:
"More U.S. troops were hospitalized for mental health disorders than any other reason in 2009.
Mental health hospitalizations throughout the military topped injuries, battle wounds and even pregnancy and childbirth for the first time in 15 years of tracking by the Pentagon's Medical Surveillance Monthly report.
Mental health care accounted for almost 40% of all days spent in hospitals by servicemembers last year, the report said. Of those hospitalizations, 5% lasted longer than 33 days. For most other conditions, fewer than 5% of hospitalizations exceeded 12 days, the report said.
In 2009, there were 17,538 hospitalizations for mental health issues throughout the military, the study shows. That compares with 17,354 for pregnancy and childbirth reasons, and 11,156 for injuries and battle wounds."
http://rawstory.com/rs/2010/0515/troops-hospitalized-mental-health-reason/
-->The NY Times is too busy selling a new war against Iran to cover statistics about the mental disorders of US combat vets.
