NATIONAL & WORLD DIGEST March 25, 2008

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New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/
Go to the links for the following articles:

-In an Era of School Shootings, a New Drill
Gone are the days of the traditional fire drill; now, schools preparestudents for such emergencies as bomb threats and armed, roaming sociopaths.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/25/nyregion/25drills.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

-With a Powerful Speech, Obama Offers a Challenge
The essence of the speech will likely be lost in the din that inevitablyerupts when there is a racial controversy in the United States.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/25/opinion/25herbert.html?ref=opinion

-The Long Defeat
Hillary Clinton may not realize it yet, but she's just endured one of theworst weeks of her campaign.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/25/opinion/25brooks.html?ref=opinion

-Make Sudan an Offer It Can't Refuse
DESPITE almost 1.5 million bombing sorties flown against Germany during theSecond World War, the United States and Britain failed for lack of trying todestroy the system of transport that fed the gas chambers and crematoria.
Thirty-five years later, America did not, despite its unquestioned navalsupremacy, protect the Vietnamese boat people. That we and our two alliescapable of projecting power, France and Britain, are now distracted anddivided by the wars in the Middle East is terribly unfortunate for thepeople of Darfur.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/25/opinion/25helprin.html?ref=opinion

-Obama's Test: Can a Liberal Be a Unifier?
WASHINGTON - At the core of Senator Barack Obama's presidential campaign isa promise that he can transcend the starkly red-and-blue politics of thelast 15 years, end the partisan and ideological wars and build a newgoverning majority.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/25/us/politics/25obama.html?hp

-Sharif Meets U.S. Envoys in Pakistan
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) -- A key figure in Pakistan's new government toldtwo top U.S. envoys Tuesday that his country is ''no longer a one-man show''and that President Pervez Musharraf's strong-arm tactics against Islamicmilitants will be scrutinized.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Pakistan-Politics.html?hp

-Study Finds Record Education Earmarks
Congress set aside a record $2.3 billion in pet projects for colleges anduniversities last year for research on subjects like berries and reducingodors from swine and poultry, according to an analysis by The Chronicle ofHigher Education to be published on Monday.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/24/washington/24earmarks.html


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Washington Post
http://www.miamiherald.com/
Go to the links for the following articles:

-Obama Picks Up Support from Romney Backer
It might seem unlikely that if Mitt Romney was your first choice forpresident, Barack Obama would be your second.
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/03/24/obama_picks_up_support_from_ro.html

-4,000 Dead for What?
Four thousand.
When U.S. military deaths in Iraq hit a round number, as happened Sunday,there's usually a week or so of intense focus on the war -- its bogusrationale, its nebulous aims, its awful consequences for the families of thedead. Not likely this time, though. The nation is too busy worrying aboutmore acute crises, some of them real -- the moribund housing market, theteetering financial system, the flagging economy -- and some of themmanufactured, such as the shocking revelation that race can still be adivisive issue in American society.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/24/AR2008032402293.html

-The Ultimate Casualty
You know him well. His nickname was Gilligan, and he was a prisoner at AbuGhraib, Saddam Hussein's vast prison transformed into a vast American oneand then transformed again by the Bush administration into a vast nationaldisgrace. Gilligan was deprived of sleep, forced to stand on a small box,hooded like some medieval apparition, wired like a makeshift lamp and told(falsely) that if he fell he would be electrocuted. He was later released.Wrong man. Sorry.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/24/AR2008032402290.html

-Righting the Right
What's the matter with conservatism?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/24/AR2008032402292.html

-The Face of Terror: Confessions of a Failed Suicide Bomber
In this video you will see Mohammed Ramazan, who came within a few momentsof blowing himself up during an attack on the Serena Hotel in Kabul earlierthis year, allegedly gunning down at least two people before he wascaptured. Ramazan's views and his lack of remorse for his actions areclearly those of a deeply disturbed young man with only a tenuous grip onreality. But he is also a creation - or a perversion - of Afghanistan'smullahs and Taliban commanders, who took an uneducated Pakistani with almostno knowledge of the Koran and told him to kill in the name of Islam.
http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/postglobal/islamsadvance/2008/03/suicide_bomber_interview_afghanistan.html

-Protesters Disrupt Lighting of Torch In Ancient Olympia
BEIJING, March 24 -- Demonstrators denouncing China's record on human rightsbreached tight security in Ancient Olympia on Monday and disrupted atorch-lighting ceremony that launched the Olympic flame's long journey toBeijing.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/24/AR2008032401127.html?hpid=sec-world

-8 Questions That Will Shape Where the Race for the Democratic Presidential Nomination Goes From Here
What is the most likely outcome of the dispute over the delegations fromFlorida and Michigan?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/22/AR2008032202229.html


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From Ron Mills

-Visit our tribute to the 4,000 fallen soldiers who have fallen in theBush/Cheney War - 4,000... and counting
http://ronnmills.blogspot.com/2008/03/4000-and-counting.html


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Fort Report
http://www.fortreport.com/
Go to the links for the following articles:

-US Republicans, in search of the weaker Democrat
Buoyed by recent polls favoring John McCain to win the White House,Republicans are sharpening their knives while wondering which Democrat wouldbe easier to beat in November.
http://rawstory.com/news/afp/US_Republicans_in_search_of_the_wea_03252008.html

-Pressure Grows on Democrats to Unite
WASHINGTON - Democrats came under mounting pressure Sunday to close ranksbehind a single candidate, as Hillary Clinton faces dwindling mathematicalpossibilities of defeating Barack Obama for her party's nod for the WhiteHouse.
http://newsmax.com/headlines/clinton_obama_unite/2008/03/23/82431.html

-Worried Democrats wish for 'dream team ticket'
WASHINGTON - What are the odds Democrats will field a "dream team ticket"with Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton combining forces?
http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/election2008/2008-03-24-Dreamteam_N.htm

-Democratic Nominee Will Have Edge in Fall Even If Economy Turns
March 24 (Bloomberg) -- Seven months before Election Day, rising homeforeclosures, shrinking financial assets and gasoline approaching a record$4 a gallon are daily reminders that the U.S. economy may be the worst inalmost 30 years.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601073&sid=af3IPl3rv9DY&refer=election

-GOP state parties are in dire straits
At a time when the GOP presidential nominee will need more assistance thanever, a number of state Republican parties are struggling through troubledtimes, suffering from internal strife, poor fundraising, onerous debt,scandal or voting trends that are conspiring to relegate the local branchesof the party to near-irrelevance.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0308/9175.html

-McCain addresses housing crisis options
SANTA ANA, Calif.-Republican John McCain, who has conceded economics is nothis strong suit, says government isn't in the business of saving andrewarding banks or small borrowers who behave irresponsibly.
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2008/03/25/mccain_addresses_housing_crisis_options/

-McCain says U.S. succeeding in Iraq
CHULA VISTA, Calif. -- Fresh off his eighth Iraq visit, Sen. John McCaindeclared Monday that "we are succeeding" and said he wouldn't changecourse - even as the U.S. death toll rose to 4,000 and the war entered itssixth year.
http://www.miamiherald.com/692/story/468814.html

-Detroit Mayor Is Charged With Eight Felonies
CHICAGO, March 24 -- Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick (D), who wore a diamond earringand pledged an urban renaissance in Detroit when he won election asAmerica's youngest big-city mayor in 2001, was charged Monday with eightfelonies in an obstruction-of-justice case that could end his once-promisingcareer.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/24/AR2008032401120.html?hpid=moreheadlines


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