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Facing It
Yusef Komunyakaa
My black face fades,
hiding inside the black granite.
I said I wouldn't,
dammit: No tears.
I'm stone. I'm flesh.
My clouded reflection eyes me
like a bird of prey, the profile of night
slanted against morning. I turn
this way—the stone lets me go.
I turn that way—I'm inside
the Vietnam Veterans Memorial
again, depending on the light
to make a difference.
I go down the 58,022 names,
half-expecting to find
my own in letters like smoke.
I touch the name Andrew Johnson;
I see the booby trap's white flash.
Names shimmer on a woman's blouse
but when she walks away
the names stay on the wall.
Brushstrokes flash, a red bird's
wings cutting across my stare.
The sky. A plane in the sky.
A white vet's image floats
closer to me, then his pale eyes
look through mine. I'm a window.
He's lost his right arm
inside the stone. In the black mirror
a woman’s trying to erase names:
No, she's brushing a boy's hair.
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News
New NATO air strike in Libya claims civilian lives, including children
THREE children were among 15 people killed in a new NATO air strike in Libya today, government spokesman Mussa Ibrahim told reporters during a tour of damaged buildings in Sorman, west of Tripoli.
The new allegation of civilian deaths in a NATO-led raid came just hours after the alliance acknowledged it was responsible for deaths in a residential area of the capital early yesterday.
Ibrahim said the strike, which hit the home of Khuwildi Hemidi, who served on the Revolution Command Council which Muammar Gaddafi established when he seized power in 1969, was a "cowardly terrorist act which cannot be justified".
Graham: Afghan Withdrawal Would Be 'Colossal Mistake'
When 2012 GOP presidential candidate frontrunner Mitt Romney called for U.S. troops to leave Afghanistan at a debate last week, he ignited a discussion -- and perhaps division -- amongst Republicans who support the war and those who are advocating a more rapid drawdown.
"It's time for us to bring our troops home as soon as we possibly can, consistent with the word that comes from our generals," Romney said at the June 13 debate. "Our troops should not go off and try and fight a war of independence for another nation. Only the Afghanis can win Afghanistan's independence from the Taliban."
SNIP
The candidates' views contrast with those of prominent Republicans Senators John McCain, R-Ariz., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who spoke out against a rapid withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Hey Washington, the people are speaking: Leave Medicare the fuck alone and end the damn wars!
The Hill Poll: Majority says military involved in too many places
An overwhelming number of voters believe the United States is involved in too many foreign conflicts and should pull back its troops, according to a new poll conducted for The Hill.
Seventy-two percent of those polled said the United States is fighting in too many places, with only 16 percent saying the current level of engagement represented an appropriate level. Twelve percent said they weren’t sure.
Voters also do not think having U.S. soldiers fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq has made the country safer, according to the poll.
Hospitals courting primary-care doctors
In one of the first concrete steps to remake the way medical care is delivered, hospitals are competing to hire primary-care physicians, trying to lure them from their private practices to work as salaried employees alongside specialists.
The push is forcing doctors to make decisions about how to deliver care to patients, many of whom have relied on long-standing relationships with trusted independent neighborhood physicians and wonder what lies ahead.
It also spotlights benefits and drawbacks for patients and doctors alike in one of the health-care overhaul’s much-touted initiatives, set to begin next year. The law will reward teams of doctors, nurses and others if they coordinate to provide better care at lower costs. As front-line doctors, primary-care physicians are key to this effort.
I wish I could find a similar scheme for my student loans.
Banks tap fund to repay TARP
Hundreds of small banks that received US aid after the financial crisis appear to have found a creative way to repay the funds: obtain money from a different government program.
Most of the 627 banks that still hold money from the controversial Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, have filed applications to roll the obligations into the government’s new Small Business Lending Fund, according to Treasury officials and the banks.
SNIP
TARP was widely tarred as a bailout for greedy banks, but the $30 billion small business lending program does not carry the same baggage. The new program would let many TARP recipients sharply reduce dividend payments to the government, while no longer facing strict restrictions on executive compensation.