be just

blackagendareport.com - Running to the Right: Barack Obama and the DLC Strategy by BAR Managing Editor Bruce DixonThe fragility of Barack Obama's DLC-inspired electoral strategy is now exposed for all to see. Obama has chosen to “reach out” to white and Republican voters while challenging none of their assumptions about America, racism or empire, at the same time, counting on on a deaf and blind black nationalism to shield him from accountability to African Americans. Republicans (and Hillary Clinton) know all they need do to counter him is prove to whites that he is not as conservative as he seems. Obama will thus be forced scramble relentlessly rightward from here on, disowning, denouncing and dishonoring any and all stirrings of black or grassroots militancy to keep white support without telling white America anything it doesn't want to know.

A DIY journalist's account of what he saw in Iraq | World news | The Guardian : "Texas-born Dahr Jamail was outraged that the US media were swallowing the Bush administration's line on Iraq and so, with just $2,000 and no previous journalistic experience, he set off to find out what was really happening in the country. He talks to Stephen Moss"

Judge May Make CIA Torture Memo Public, ACLU Lawsuit Prompted A Federal Judge To Examine The Controversial Document - CBS News : "U.S. District Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein issued the order after he had earlier said the 18-page memo did not have to be turned over to the American Civil Liberties Union because it was protected by attorney-client privilege. The ACLU said it believes the memo includes a section addressing the subject of waterboarding, which simulates drowning. Hellerstein said he reconsidered his ruling after hearing from both sides again on the subject. The CIA must turn the item over for review on Monday."

Press TV - Al-Qaeda 'declares war on Hezbollah' : "Al-Qaeda has reportedly called on its operatives to go to Lebanon and defend what it called the Sunni community of the country."

Garowe Online - Home : "BELETWEIN, Somalia May 9 (Garowe Online) - A notorious warlord in central Somalia has returned to his former seat of power at a provincial capital after being forced to flee in April by Islamist guerrillas. Yusuf Daboged, the former governor of Hiran region, told reporters by telephone that he is the 'legitimate' governor of Hiran. Mr. Daboged said he is in the outskirts of Beletwein, the capital of Hiran, although hundreds of Ethiopian soldiers backed by armored trucks entered the town early Friday for the first time in weeks."

Al Jazeera English - News - Sadr Aide Criticises Iraq's Sistani : "An aide to Muqtada al-Sadr has lashed out at Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq's most revered Shia cleric, for keeping silent over clashes that have killed hundreds in Baghdad. Fifteen people were killed and dozens wounded in fighting in the Sadr City district of the capital on Friday, US and Iraqi officials said."

Voices across the divide: Rami Khouri | World news | The Observer : "When Israeli, Arab and other journalists merely parrot their government lines, they do everyone a disservice. When they repeat the hysterical assumptions and flawed interpretations of their semi-crazed politicians - as I believe is common in Israel today - they become instruments of war, rather than purveyors of fact and dispassionate analysis. But when they cut through official spin and associated propaganda, and help their public understand the roots of the problem, and thus the path to its resolution, they rise to their highest professional and personal stature. So here's what I would say to journalists in Israel: read Deuteronomy and act on its moral and political principles. Deuteronomy, a pivotal book of the Hebrew Bible (the Old Testament), is supremely relevant here because it blends the three issues that I believe Israeli, Arab and international journalists must affirm in order to honour their profes...

Rootless Cosmopolitan - By Tony Karon » Blog Archive » Israel is 60, Zionism is Dead, What Now? : "The fact of Israel’s survival until now, and for the foreseeable future, is a grim reality for its 1 million Palestinian citizens, whose citizenship is at best, second-class – and more so for the 4 million Palestinians over which it maintains sovereign power in the West Bank and Gaza, without granting them citizenship – for whom Israel means living under an apartheid regime. And that, in turn, means that the trappings of globalized modernity enjoyed by Israel’s secular middle class – the American lifestyle, the high-tech economy and the European football – all come at the price of perennial uncertainty under a cloud of potential violence."

The Angry Arab News Service/وكالة أنباء العربي الغاضب : "Don't ever think that I forgot about Palestine and the Palestinians. Nothing distracts me from Palestine and the Palestinians. Here, Palestinian children confront Israeli occupation troops in Bethlehem. These are the Palestinians. These are my heroes. (AFP)"

Snipers in Iraq | Salon News In 2007 elite U.S. snipers executed an unarmed Iraqi prisoner in cold blood. Have the insidious tactics that led to atrocities in Vietnam reemerged in Iraq?