be just

17 Palestinians killed in Israeli airstrikes in three days At least 17 Palestinians, six of them civilians, have been killed in the Israeli pounding of the Hamas controlled Gaza Strip since Thursday in the bloodiest escalation since the two sides agreed to an informal ceasefire more than two years ago.

A Militarized Economy Cannot Balance the Budget   :      Information Clearing House: ICH April 08, 2011 "Information Clearing House" -- While we send our love and support to those so horribly impacted by the earthquake and tsunami, we must not allow this shock to divert us from the tsunami headed our way. Our business and political leaders will try to use this terrible catastrophe as a diversion to hoodwink us into budgetary reductions that will fatten their wallets and leave us and our children devastated. It does not matter on what side of the political fence you sit during the current budget debates. The fact is that if our leaders are not willing to take into account our over-dependence on a militarized economy and change it, we will never balance the budget. Our progeny will face an endless struggle to clean up the debris. Each year the Department of Defense’s tidal wave grows more menacing. We witness countless billions allocated for weapons research and development; nu...

Maan News Agency: Ashrawi: We will prosecute crimes against Palestinians RAMALLAH (Ma'an) -- PLO leader Hanan Ashrawi expressed concern Monday over Richard Goldstone's recent comments over his report on Israel's Operation Cast Lead offensive on the Gaza Strip . In an opinion piece published Friday by The Washington Post, Goldstone reconsidered his report, which found evidence that Israel and Hamas committed war crimes and crimes against humanity during the 22-day attack. "If I had known then what I know now, the Goldstone Report would have been a different document," the retired judge wrote.

Budget Deal Would Give Pentagon Extra Funds In Exchange For Social Program Cuts    :      Information Clearing House: ICH April 05, 2011 "Huffington Post" -- WASHINGTON -- While media attention focuses on the cuts to government spending demanded by House Republicans and broadly accepted by Democrats, the Pentagon is poised to reap billions more in federal funds, according to sources close to the discussions. The confines of the budget negotiations established by the two parties results in a system where every extra dollar going to military spending ends up being offset by a dollar reduction in spending on domestic social programs. Last week, Senate Democrats came to the table with $10 billion in proposed cuts to the military budget but, a House GOP aide said, the offer was immediately rejected. Democratic sources confirmed that the party had proposed defense spending reductions but disputed the amount. Democrats and Republicans are now moving toward an agreement that would i...

Bahrain and Saudi Arabia's Rulers Goose-Step to the Brink of the Abyss  :      Information Clearing House: ICH The repression has turned into an operation of conspicuous bigotry, brutality, and mendacity that does not bode well for the future of the emirate, political liberalization inside Saudi Arabia, or peaceful coexistence between Iran and the Gulf states. In recent days, Bahrain has used live ammunition—shotguns—against demonstrators and blanketed Manama with checkpoints, some manned by personnel masked with sinister black balaclavas. After a group of Shia legislators resigned in protest, the government officially accepted their resignations—so they could strip the legislators of their immunity and render them liable to criminal charges. Main opposition newspaper—shut down. Only hospital in Manama—occupied by security forces so that wounded demonstrators can be apprehended, abused, and/or disappeared. In classic doublespeak, the government declared that the hospital had been “...

Greed is Not a Virtue   :      Information Clearing House: ICH The following are some of the more visible elements of Wall Street’s global campaign of moral perversion. It uses control of media outlets, advertising, and politicians to shape and spread a global culture of individualistic greed, material self-indulgence, ruthless competition, and moral irresponsibility. Through the pursuit and celebration of financial gain at any cost, it provides role models for immoral behavior. It undermines democracy and the legitimacy of government by buying politicians to do its bidding. It uses student loan programs to get the best and brightest youth mired in debts they can repay only by selling themselves to jobs that serve Wall Street interests. It buys up and monopolizes control of the world’s land and water resources in anticipation of extracting monopoly profits by charging what the market will bear as scarcity increases. It uses its financial power and creative accounting skills to manipula...

America's Costliest War     :      Information Clearing House: ICH By William Hartung April 06, 2011 "Huffington Post" -- Congress, the media, and the public are rightly asking whether America should be spending $1 billion or more on the intervention in Libya at a time of fiscal austerity. One member of Congress has even proposed that the mission be offset dollar for dollar by cuts in domestic programs (leaving the Pentagon and related security programs off limits). While this newfound attention to the costs of U.S. global military operations is welcome, focusing on Libya alone misses the mark. The $1 billion in projected spending on Libya is just one tenth of one percent of the over $1 trillion the United States has spent so far on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Looked at another way, the likely costs of the Libyan mission are the equivalent of less than four days of spending on the war in Afghanistan.