be just

As Baucus Unveils Health Plan Absent of Public Option, New Study Finds 45,000 Uninsured Die Every Year : "JUAN GONZALEZ: Nearly 45,000 Americans die every year—that’s 122 deaths a day—due to lack of health insurance. That’s the startling finding of a new study that appears in the current issue of the American Journal of Public Health. The figure is about two-and-a-half times higher than an estimate from the Institute of Medicine in 2002. The Harvard-based researchers found that uninsured, working-age Americans have a 40 percent higher risk of death than their privately insured counterparts, up from a 25 percent excess death rate found in 1993. Deaths associated with lack of health insurance now exceed those caused by many common killers such as kidney disease. News of the study comes as the drive for healthcare reform is entering a new phase on Capitol Hill. On Wednesday, Montana Senator Max Baucus, the chair of the Senate Finance Committee, released his long-awaited healthcare re...

Making the Illegal Legal -- In These Times : "On August 2, 2009, after cordoning off part of the Arab neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah in East Jerusalem, Israeli police evicted two Palestinian families—more than 50 people—from their homes. Jewish settlers immediately moved into the emptied houses. Although Israeli police cited a ruling by the country’s Supreme Court to justify the evictions, the Arab families had been living there for more than 50 years. The event attracted the attention of the global media, but it is part of a larger and mostly ignored process."

Norman G. Finkelstein » More on Goldstone : "Nicole Goldstone, the daughter of Richard Goldstone, whose report on Operation Cast Lead alleged that Israel committed war crimes in Gaza, maintained on Wednesday that her father “is a Zionist and loves Israel.” Speaking from Toronto, where she now lives, Nicole told Army Radio she had many conversations with her father after he was asked to head the UN inquiry. “I know better than anyone else that he thought however hard it was to accept it, he was doing the best thing for everyone, including Israel,” she said. “He is honest, tells things how he sees them and wants to uncover the truth.”"

Iraqi shot after throwing slipper at US patrol | Antiwar Newswire : "American Marines shot and wounded an Iraqi man in the former flashpoint city of Fallujah believing he was throwing a grenade at them, the U.S. military said Thursday — but local police and witnesses said the object was only the man's slipper."

Tribal leader: 87 civilians killed in Yemen strike | Antiwar Newswire : "Nearly 87 civilians were killed in a strike by government warplanes that hit a camp of people fleeing fighting in northern Yemen, a tribal leader said Thursday. It was a sign of increasing bloodiness in a remote war against Shiite rebels in this turmoil-ridden Arab nation. The Yemeni government has said it is determined to stamp out the 5-year-old rebellion, despite U.S. pressure for it to do more against al-Qaida, which has been strengthening its presence in the country. Every day, warplanes screech over the ornate mud-brick skyline of San'a, the capital, to bomb the Shiite rebels in the northern region of Saada, on the border with Saudi Arabia. Some 150,000 Yemenis have fled their homes since 2004, cramming into camps, schools and barns as aid groups struggle to bring in supplies. "

RebelReports - Blackwater Offers Training to 'Faith Based Organizations' : "In its ever-evolving re-branding campaign, Blackwater has created a new alter-ego for part of the company’s business. Meet the “Personal Security Awareness” program, which appears to be an off-shoot of Erik Prince’s Greystone, Ltd., a classic mercenary operation registered offshore in Barbados. On its website, which was registered on February 20, 2009 and went live recently, the “program” is described as “a multi-phase course which is designed to assist Non-Government Organizations, Faith Based Organizations and Commercial Businesses by providing individual personal awareness and driver training for their personnel when deployed to unfamiliar environments.” It adds: “Greystone recognizes the importance of “preparation by doing” and looks forward to you joining us for this exciting training!”"

Report: Barak says Iran is not existential threat to Israel - Haaretz - Israel News : "Defense Minister Ehud Barak was quoted on Thursday as saying he does not view Iran as a threat to Israel's existence, a view that would seem to depart from Israeli statements of the recent past. Israel's mass-circulation Yedioth Ahronoth daily quoted Barak, the head of Israel's centre-left Labour party, as saying 'Iran does not constitute an existential threat against Israel.'"

Is America Hooked on War? by Tom Engelhardt -- Antiwar.com : "Because the United States does not look like a militarized country, it’s hard for Americans to grasp that Washington is a war capital, that the United States is a war state, that it garrisons much of the planet, and that the norm for us is to be at war somewhere at any moment. Similarly, we’ve become used to the idea that, when various forms of force (or threats of force) don’t work, our response, as in Afghanistan, is to recalibrate and apply some alternate version of the same under a new or rebranded name — the hot one now being 'counterinsurgency' or COIN — in a marginally different manner. When it comes to war, as well as preparations for war, more is now generally the order of the day."

Al Jazeera English - Focus - 'Time ripe to rebuild Somalia' : "For many Somalis, al-Shabab looked like a better option than occupation by Ethiopia - Somalia's historic enemy. However, now that Ethiopia is gone, moderate Islamists - along with a new generation of nationalist politicians - are ready to lead."