be just

globeandmail.com: Horror stories of torture hound Ethiopia as it proclaims commitment to reform : "Horror stories of torture hound Ethiopia as it proclaims commitment to reform Evidence suggests nation jails its citizens without reason or trial, tortures many of them and habitually violates its own laws NICK WADHAMS From Tuesday's Globe and Mail May 29, 2007 at 4:13 AM EDT"

Celebrating the Rule of Force, Not Freedom : "One often can write news stories by the calendar, and today is not an exception. This is Memorial Day, and we are going to hear the rhetoric about honoring those who 'died fighting for our freedom.' Indeed, Americans might be honoring the dead from U.S. wars, but in no case did any of those dead whom we memorialize today die for 'our freedom.' They died, instead, because our political classes pointedly understand that promoting war is good for them. I realize this is a statement that will bring anger. Those people who have lost loved ones in one of many U.S. conflicts will be angry because my statement insinuates that these mostly-young people died for a Big Lie. Others who have not been directly touched by one of our many wars simply want to believe that the United States of America is a shining beacon of freedom, and we need to protect that freedom from those who would take it away."

Progressive Independent - Viewing topic 47 Reasons To Oppose The Democratic Party- Revisited

"Good Riddance Attention Whore" : "The first conclusion is that I was the darling of the so-called left as long as I limited my protests to George Bush and the Republican Party. Of course, I was slandered and libeled by the right as a 'tool' of the Democratic Party. This label was to marginalize me and my message. How could a woman have an original thought, or be working outside of our 'two-party' system? However, when I started to hold the Democratic Party to the same standards that I held the Republican Party, support for my cause started to erode and the 'left' started labeling me with the same slurs that the right used. I guess no one paid attention to me when I said that the issue of peace and people dying for no reason is not a matter of 'right or left', but 'right and wrong.'"

Pakistan losing territory to radicals | csmonitor.com

Tuesday: 13 GIs, 169 Iraqis Killed; 146 Iraqis Wounded; 40 Iraqis, 5 Britons Kidnapped - Antiwar.com

Chechnya Weekly from the Jamestown Foundation : "The Mufti of the Chechen Republic, Sultan Mirzaev, has commented on the fact that some young people in the republic have been heading to the mountains to join the rebels. Kavkazky Uzel, on May 23, quoted Mirzaev as stating that during recent months, around twenty young people from the various settlements had “gone into the mountains.” He added: “There will be no more amnesty games with these youths. They will meet their death in the mountains or will sit in prison for the rest of their lives.”"

Joe DeRaymond: Colombia's Civil War and the US : "Colombia is a very dangerous nation for union organizers, journalists, human rights workers, anyone trying to organize in civil society for social change or an end to the war. The assassinations continue daily and the United States support for this system has remained constant over the decades. The US/Colombia program of military action and violence as a solution to the civil war culminated in the Clinton Plan Colombia. Plan Colombia pumped over $4 billion in military aid in 5 years into the conflict, caused enormous environmental and human damage with a misguided fumigation policy, and failed miserably in controlling the civil war, the violence, or the drug trade. Cocaine in the US is actually cheaper today than in 1999, when Bill Clinton ushered his murderous policy through Congress."

Bush bungles a press conference. - By Fred Kaplan - Slate Magazine : "First, the vast majority of the insurgents have nothing to do with al-Qaida or its ideology. They're combatants in a sectarian conflict for power in Iraq, and they have neither the means nor the desire to threaten North America. Second, to the extent that the true global terrorists could attack us at home, they could do so whether or not U.S. troops stay or win in Iraq. The one issue has nothing to do with the other. Third, what kind of thing is this to say in front of the allies? If our main goal in bombing, strafing, and stomping through Iraq is to make sure we don't have to do so on our own territory, will any needy nation ever again seek our aid and cover? Or will they seek out a less blatantly selfish protector?"

LiveLeak.com - Miss USA heckled by live Mexican audience... : " " WHY DO THEY HATE US?

LiveLeak.com - U.S Army Destroys a Mosque

Why I Am Leaving the Democratic Party : "Dear Democratic Congress, Hello, my name is Cindy Sheehan and my son Casey Sheehan was killed on April 04, 2004 in Sadr City , Baghdad , Iraq . He was killed when the Republicans still were in control of Congress. Naively, I set off on my tireless campaign calling on Congress to rescind George's authority to wage his war of terror while asking him 'for what noble cause' did Casey and thousands of other have to die."

In Iraq, Every Day Is Memorial Day : "05/28/07 'Time' -- -- The Shi'ite militias that forced Azhour Ali Mohammed from her home in Baghdad's al-Dolai district last month shot her husband Amer dead before her eyes and torched all her worldly possessions. And the fear that the killers may come back for her and her two little children prevented her from mourning her husband. 'I could not hold a proper wake for him,' says the young widow. 'He deserved at least that.' "

Al Jazeera English - News - Many Killed In Ethiopia Attacks : "At least 16 people were killed and 67 injured in two attacks in eastern Ethiopia, a government official said. The attacks happened early on Monday in two towns of eastern Ethiopia, Jijiga and Degah Abur,"

The Angry Arab News Service/وكالة أنباء العربي الغاضب : "Brother by Lebanese poet Mikha'il Nu`aymah--he wrote it in 1917--(I have written about him in an earlier post and about my meeting with him at the age of 12) (my translation):"