be just

PressTV - Bahraini regime bans protests, public gatherings

UK blocks Russian condemnation of Syria terrorism : Voice of Russia

UN finds "crisis of dignity" as settlers destroy Palestine's olive trees | The Electronic Intifada SALEM (IPS) - Affixed to a large cement bloc, the rusted, gray gate leading Palestinian farmers from the northern West Bank village of Salem to their olive groves was opened for four days this year.

Chris Hedges:  Why I’m Voting Green      :   Information Clearing House: ICH October 29, 2012 "Truthdig" -- The November election is not a battle between Republicans and Democrats. It is not a battle between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney. It is a battle between the corporate state and us. And if we do not immediately engage in this battle we are finished, as climate scientists have made clear. I will defy corporate power in small and large ways. I will invest my energy now solely in acts of resistance, in civil disobedience and in defiance. Those who rebel are our only hope. And for this reason I will vote next month for Jill Stein, the Green Party candidate, although I could as easily vote for Rocky Anderson of the Justice Party. I will step outside the system. Voting for the “lesser evil”—or failing to vote at all—is part of the corporate agenda to crush what is left of our anemic democracy. And those who continue to participate in the vaudevi...

Pentagon is World’s Leading Landlord    :   Information Clearing House: ICH October 29, 2012 "Information Clearing House" - Move over, Donald Trump and Ted Turner. The Department of Defense is the world’s top property owner with holdings around the world – a fact relevant amid election-year debate about the size and role of our military. In the United States alone, DOD occupies 1.9 billion square feet of office space – about three times the floor space of all the nation’s Walmart stores, or 10 times the office space in all of Los Angeles. Worldwide, DOD has more than 2 million people working on 5,000 sites in 41 countries. (Walmart, the nation’s largest private employer, has 1.4 million workers.) Today’s video has more on the world’s biggest landlord. Take a look, share it with a friend in uniform, then consider the size and scope of today’s military in our discussion thread below. How do we know? Check the original sources behind the fact: US ...

Israel “far worse than apartheid South Africa” says ANC chair as Pretoria conference backs boycott Activists in South Africa have welcomed a decision by the African National Congress (ANC) International Solidarity Conference to support the Palestinian-led campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel. The ANC, South Africa’s ruling party, led the decades-long struggle against apartheid. The official declaration of the conference, held in Pretoria/Tshwane from 25-28 October, “Reiterated its support for Palestinian aspirations for an independent state including the full membership of the UN; and called on the UN Security Council to show leadership in halting the expansion of Israeli settlements and the harassment of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.”

UN to Establish Ongoing Investigations into Obama’s Drone War -- News from Antiwar.com The United Nations has decided to set up an investigations unit dedicated to examining the legality of drone attacks and uncovering cases in which civilians are killed in the Obama administration’s drone war.

As Holy Land 5 appeal begins, Palestinians in Gaza praise charity closed by Bush Mariam Mohammad Aljamal was one of thousands of Palestinians assisted by the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF) during its years as the largest Islamic charity in the United States. In 2001 Aljamal finished high school and hoped to study electrical engineering at the Islamic University of Gaza (IUG). “I scored very high marks – 97.8 in the science track,” she recalled, speaking from her home in Gaza’s Nuseirat refugee camp. “But my family was going through very hard financial circumstances. Two of my sisters were already studying at the university at that time. Some of my family’s friends told us that the HLF gave scholarships to needy people. “So I applied. They asked me to provide some documents and reports to prove my financial status and that I was a high school graduate. After a while, after I had begun studying at IUG, they called to tell me I had been selected for a scholar...

As Holy Land 5 appeal begins, Palestinians in Gaza praise charity closed by Bush Mariam Mohammad Aljamal was one of thousands of Palestinians assisted by the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF) during its years as the largest Islamic charity in the United States. In 2001 Aljamal finished high school and hoped to study electrical engineering at the Islamic University of Gaza (IUG). “I scored very high marks – 97.8 in the science track,” she recalled, speaking from her home in Gaza’s Nuseirat refugee camp. “But my family was going through very hard financial circumstances. Two of my sisters were already studying at the university at that time. Some of my family’s friends told us that the HLF gave scholarships to needy people. “So I applied. They asked me to provide some documents and reports to prove my financial status and that I was a high school graduate. After a while, after I had begun studying at IUG, they called to tell me I had been selected for a scholar...

Reflections on Noam Chomsky's visit to Gaza | The Electronic Intifada Q-SEE Advanced Series 8 Ch. D1 Security Surveillance System with 500GB HDD & 4 420 TVL Indoor/Outdoor Cameras

Hypocrisy And The Shooting of Malala Yousafzai    :   Information Clearing House: ICH October 16, 2012 "Information Clearing House" - The shooting of 14 year old Malala Yousafzai has shocked the world, and shocking it should be, as children don’t deserve such ruthlessness. What Malala stood for, and what she was fighting against, is not my concern at the moment, for such concerns, whether right or wrong, have already been addressed by a large number of so-called advocates for Human rights and justice. I am not even concerned in knowing who actually tried to kill her, for I as a Muslim do not condone such an act. What I am really concerned about is the hypocritical stance taken by some of the voices who are standing up for Malala today. Two days after the activist girl was shot, American singer Madonna, dedicated a song for her, and said, “This made me cry. The 14-year-old schoolgirl who wrote a blog about going to school. The Taliban stopped her bus and sho...

Paul Craig Roberts:   Obamneycare Converts Health Care Into Profits    :   Information Clearing House: ICH October 19, 2012 "Information Clearing House" - In the guest section there is a new contribution by Dr. Robert S. Dotson. He points out that Obamneycare is two versions of the same thing. A person has to be gullible and uninformed to believe the claims of Obama and Romney that their replacements for Medicare will save money and improve care. What the schemes do is convert public monies into private profits.

Michael Scheuer: America Is A Slave To Israel     :   Information Clearing House: ICH October 19, 2012 "Information Clearing House" - As Americans fixate on the presidential campaign, they also should note the status of President Obama and Governor Romney. Yes, both are presidential candidates, but both are also men who — with their predecessors and the Congress — have willingly surrendered American sovereignty and independence to Israel and its U.S.-citizen advocates (Jewish and Evangelical), their organizations, and much of the media. In return for campaign contributions and positive media coverage, Obama and Romney have enslaved themselves and their country to Israel and some few thousands of disloyal Jewish-Americans and their equally disloyal Christian Evangelical allies. One has to wonder whether Obama and Romney refer to Israel’s prime minister as “Massa’ Benyamin,” or whether they shuffle and pull their forelocks when groveling for money from I...

Why Walmart, Why Now? - In These Times For years, the world’s retail behemoth, Walmart, has seemed impervious to organizing attempts. Unions, specifically the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW), have attempted to organize retail workers at the company—long known for both its low prices and poverty wages—but the company’s aggressive union-busting has always won the day.

Jimmy Carter Says Elections Corrupted • Ex-president: United States has worst election process on planet By Pete Papaherakles Injecting billions of dollars into U.S. politics is a recipe for corruption, says former President Jimmy Carter. Placing the blame squarely on the Supreme Court for endorsing a corporate spending free-for-all in American politics, he said the justices gave unlimited freedom to special interest groups representing corporations and lobbyists to provide campaign funding through third parties that don’t have to disclose their donors. “We have one of the worst election processes in the world right here in the United States of America,” he said, “and it’s almost entirely because of the excessive influx of money.

US-Backed Nigerian Military Kills 30 Civilians -- News from Antiwar.com US-supported Nigerian soldiers killed up to 30 civilians on Monday “using assault rifles and heavy machine guns mounted on armored personnel carriers” and set fire to about 50 homes and businesses in the area, according to the Associated Press.

The US presidential debates' illusion of political choice | Glenn Greenwald | Comment is free | The Guardian Wednesday night's debate between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney underscored a core truth about America's presidential election season: the vast majority of the most consequential policy questions are completely excluded from the process. This fact is squarely at odds with a primary claim made about the two parties – that they represent radically different political philosophies – and illustrates how narrow the range of acceptable mainstream political debate is in the country. In part this is because presidential elections are now conducted almost entirely like a tawdry TV reality show. Personality quirks and trivialities about the candidates dominate coverage, and voter choices, leaving little room for substantive debates.

On the killing of eight Afghan women   :   Information Clearing House: ICH October 06, 2012 "Information Clearing House" - If you looked carefully at the news last week, you might have heard a report from Afghanistan about how the U.S./NATO forces bombed and killed eight Afghan women who were out walking in the mountains early in the morning before dawn to collect wood. Eight other women were seriously injured.

Massive Rally Against US Drone Strikes to Be Held in Pakistan -- News from Antiwar.com A convoy of Pakistanis and foreign supporters (including a handful of Americans) are in the capital city of Islamabad tonight preparing for the start of tomorrow’s major march into the South Waziristan Agency.

Israel excluded as model UN meets in Gaza The opening ceremony of the model United Nations in Gaza City. (Majdi Fathi / APA images) There were three items on the agenda when the United Nations Security Council held an extraordinary meeting in Gaza City last weekend: the expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank; the siege of Gaza; and the status of East Jerusalem. Israel was prevented from having any input into the discussions because it does not recognize Palestine. As you may have gathered, the exclusion of Israel was not officially approved by Ban Ki-moon or others in the UN hierarchy. Rather, it was a decision taken by the Model United Nations, a forum set up by Gaza youth. “We have not included Israel mainly because of the fact that Israel does not recognize us and works tirelessly to prevent any possible move at the UN to recognize Palestine as a member state,” said Yasmine Khader, Palestine’s “representative” and “observer” at the mock Security Council meeting. ...

  Hate-Speech Hypocrites  :   Information Clearing House: ICH October 01, 2012 "Information Clearing House" - Jews have too much influence over U.S. foreign policy. Gay men are too promiscuous. Muslims commit too much terrorism. Blacks commit too much crime. Each of those claims is poorly stated. Each, in its clumsy way, addresses a real problem or concern. And each violates laws against hate speech. In much of what we call the free world, for writing that paragraph, I could be jailed. Libertarians, cultural conservatives, and racists have complained about these laws for years. But now the problem has turned global. Islamic governments, angered by an anti-Muslim video that provoked protests and riots in their countries, are demanding to know why insulting the Prophet Mohammed is free speech but vilifying Jews and denying the Holocaust isn’t. And we don’t have a good answer. If we’re going to preach freedom of expression around the world, we have to practice it...

Video: Tel Aviv exhibit features testimony by Nakba perpetrators