be just

Factbox: A look at costs of Afghan war to U.S. taxpayers | Reuters About twice as much money -- $708 billion -- has gone to the war in Iraq so far, CBO says. But Afghanistan is becoming the more expensive battleground, as the pace of U.S. military operations slows in Iraq and quickens in Afghanistan. The current fiscal year, which ends September 30, is the first year that more money has been allocated to Afghanistan ($72.3 billion) than Iraq ($64.5 billion), according to the National Priorities Project, a nonpartisan budget research group that examines congressional appropriations.

Gold stones, glass houses: Israel's relationship with apartheid South Africa by Sasha Polakow-Suransky | The Middle East Channel More importantly, Ayalon's and Rivlin's moralism conveniently ignores Israel's history of arming the apartheid regime from the mid-1970s until the early 1990s. By serving as South Africa's primary and most reliable arms supplier during a period of violent internal repression and external aggression, Israel's government did far more to aid the apartheid regime than Goldstone ever did. The Israel-South Africa alliance began in earnest in April 1975 when then-Defense Minister Shimon Peres signed a secret security pact with his South African counterpart, P.W. Botha. Within months, the two countries were doing a brisk trade, closing arms deals totaling almost $200 million; Peres even offered to sell Pretoria nuclear-capable Jericho missiles. By 1979, South Africa had become the Israeli defense industry's single largest customer,...

Chicago rail boss commits suicide by train: reports | Reuters Last week, Phil Pagano was put on paid leave by the board of directors of Metra, where he had been executive director for 20 years. A spokeswoman for the cash-strapped agency said Pagano's bonus on top of his $270,000 salary was improper. Metra's board canceled a scheduled meeting and issued a statement announcing Pagano's death. The sheriff in suburban McHenry County said a man had walked in front of an oncoming train in an apparent suicide. Pagano's death follows some recent high-profile suicides of Illinois political figures. Chicago Public Schools Chief Executive Michael Scott shot himself to death along the Chicago River in November; and Christopher Kelly, an aide to ousted former state governor Rod Blagojevich, committed suicide in September before he was due to begin a prison term.

Food-stamp tally nears 40 million, sets record | Reuters WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Nearly 40 million Americans received food stamps -- the latest in an ever-higher string of record enrollment that dates from December 2008 and the U.S. recession, according to a government update.

Lieberman’s Modest Gulag Proposal

CNSNews.com - Gallup Poll: 9 Out of 10 Americans Say Secure the Border This Year (CNSNews.com) - A USA Today/Gallup poll conducted May 1-2 shows that 9 out of 10 Americans say it is moderately to extremely important to them for the federal government to take steps this year to secure the border against illegal immigration. Similarly, 61 percent of Americans say they are very concerned that illegal immigrants are putting an unfair burden on U.S. schools, hospitals, and government services. Gallup asked respondents whether it was extremely important, very important, moderately important, or not that important to them that the U.S. government take steps this year to control the border to stop the flow of illegal immigrants into the country. Only 10 percent said it was not that important. Eighty-nine percent said it was moderately to extremely important, with 42 percent saying it was extremely important, 26 percent saying it was very important, and 21 percent saying it was mode...

Why Was Cheney in Saudi Arabia? | Mother Jones [UPDATED] Foreign Policy 's David Kenner pointed out Monday that former vice president and ex-Halliburton CEO Dick Cheney just went on a junket to meet with Saudi Arabian leaders, a quiet pow-wow that's been discussed in the Saudi media but not so much over here. Cheney—who's been busy defending torture and complaining that Barack Obama lets world leaders " think they're dealing with a weak president "—weakened the president by visiting a leading torture regime and its caliph, King Abdullah. So, what was the ex-veep doing in Riyadh?