NATIONAL & WORLD NEWS May 17, 2008

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

-Editorial: A Victory for Equality and Justice
The California Supreme Court brought the United States a step closer tofulfilling its ideals of equality and justice with its momentous 4-to-3ruling upholding the right of same-sex couples to marry.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/17/opinion/17sat1.html?ref=opinion

-U.S. Planning Big New Prison in Afghanistan
The Pentagon is moving forward with plans to build a new, 40-acre detentioncomplex on the main American military base in Afghanistan, officials said,in a stark acknowledgment that the United States is likely to continue tohold prisoners overseas for years to come.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/17/world/asia/17detain.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

-Famine Looms as Wars Rend Horn of Africa
The global food crisis has arrived at Safia Ali's hut.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/17/world/africa/17somalia.html?hp

-New Tack Offers Straying Parolees a Hand, Not Cuffs
Since his release in January after serving time for a 2006 theft conviction,Lonnie Kemp has violated his parole conditions several times, getting drunkand kicked out of a halfway house and showing traces of marijuana in urinetests. If this were a few years ago, he almost certainly would be back inprison.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/17/us/17parole.html?hp=&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1211030433-wTXKKrdgqPYOVrty22OwZw

-Op-Ed Columnist: Hard Roads Ahead
Walt Disney would have been proud of John McCain's presentation on Thursdayof what the world might look like at the end of a first McCain term aspresident.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/17/opinion/17herbert.html?ref=opinion

-Op-Ed Columnist: McCain's Superfuture
John McCain gave a speech this week describing what the world would looklike after his first term in office.
It looked great! The terrorists are on the run, Iraq is a "functioningdemocracy," and back home the economy is terrific, thanks to a combinationof business tax cuts and savings gleaned from eliminating useless governmentprograms. For average citizens, the tax code has been made so simple andundemanding that filling out I.R.S. forms would probably become an enjoyablefamily activity, like miniature golf.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/17/opinion/17collins.html?ref=opinion

-Editorial: The President Goes Negative
President Bush's penchant for slash-and-burn politics, learned at the feetof Karl Rove and the late Lee Atwater, is unseemly when practiced at home.
It is shameful for the president and damaging for the country when put ondisplay abroad.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/17/opinion/17sat2.html?ref=opinion

-In Siberia, Shopping Malls Are Sprouting All Over
In this region of Siberia, long synonymous with gulags and hardship,shoppers mobbed an Ikea store last winter with the vigor of a miners' riot.
They loaded their outsize yellow shopping carts with clothes, housewares,appliances and small furniture.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/17/business/worldbusiness/17mall.html

-News Analysis: Same-Sex Marriage and Racial Justice Find Common Ground
Not long into the oral argument before the California Supreme Court in Marchover whether gay and lesbian couples have a constitutional right to marry,Chief Justice Ronald M. George showed his hand.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/17/us/17marriage.html

-Courting N.R.A., McCain Criticizes Obama and Clinton on Gun Control
Senator John McCain reached out to the National Rifle Association on Fridayand warned 6,000 people at the group's annual convention that a PresidentBarack Obama or Hillary Rodham Clinton would put the rights of "law-abiding"gun owners at risk.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/17/us/politics/17mccain.html

-Obama Strikes Back at Bush On Diplomacy
Sen. Barack Obama pushed back Friday against President Bush's implicitcriticism of his approach to foreign policy, condemning his administrationfor not capturing Osama bin Laden and blaming its Iraq war policy forstrengthening and emboldening Iran.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/16/AR2008051603914.html?hpid=topnews


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Miami Herald
http://www.miamiherald.com/
Go to the links for the following articles:

-TEXAS SECT: Pedophiles, not prophets
During the Vietnam War there was a phrase that came to symbolize the entiremisbegotten adventure: ''It became necessary to destroy the village in orderto save it.'' It was said at first with sincerity, then repeated with ironyand, finally, with despair.
http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/other_views/story/536664.html


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

-Edwards rules out possibility of vice presidential run with Obama
When John Edwards and Barack Obama appeared on stage together Wednesdaynight in Michigan for the former North Carolina senator's official blessingof the Democratic front-runner, some pundits and Democrats wondered aloudwhether they were seeing the Democratic ticket.
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2008/05/17/edwards_rules_out_possibility_of_vice_presidential_run_with_obama/?rss_id=Boston+Globe+--+Today%27s+paper+A+to+Z

-McCain Courts NRA In Gun Shop Visit
McCain Courts NRA, Second Amendment Devotees In West Virginia Gun Shop Visit
John McCain visited a gun shop Friday _ but bought just a fishing scale _during the first stop in a day of courtship of the National RifleAssociation and Second Amendment devotees.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/05/16/ap/politics/main4103252.shtml

-Culture change or culture war?
What will be the long-term outcome of the same-sex marriage ruling?
When the California Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the stateConstitution's fundamental right to marry extends to couples of the samesex, it settled a legal question and opened some critical political ones.
With a proposed constitutional amendment that would overturn the court'sdecision likely to qualify for the November ballot, will a high turnout ofsocial and religious traditionalists put usually Democratic California "intoplay" in the presidential election?
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-rutten17-2008may17,0,3861060.column?track=rss

-Senate poised to take up sweeping global warming bill
Landmark legislation to reduce global warming is set to spark an intenseSenate debate in early June.
While it is unlikely to become law this year, the Climate Security Act isseen by both supporters and opponents as evidence of how far Congress hasmoved on the issue and how quickly a bill is likely to pass after a newpresident moves into the White House in January and a new Congress takesoffice.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/environment/2008-05-17-global-warming_N.htm?csp=34


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