NATIONAL & WORLD NEWS May 18, 2008

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

-Op-Ed Columnist: McCain Can Run, but Bush Won't Hide
THE biggest gift President Bush has given his party this year was to keephis daughter's wedding nearly as private as Connie Corleone's. Now that hisdisapproval rating has reached the Nixon nadir of negativity, even a joyousfamilial ritual isn't enough to make the country glad to see him. TheG.O.P.'sbest hope would be for both the president and Dick Cheney to lock themselvesin a closet until the morning after Election Day.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/18/opinion/18rich.html?_r=1&ref=opinion&oref=slogin

-Op-Ed Columnist: Obama and the Jews
Pssst. Have you heard? I have. I heard that Barack Obama once said there hasto be "an end" to the Israeli "occupation" of the West Bank "that began in1967." Yikes! Pssst. Have you heard? I have. I heard that Barack Obama saidthat not only must Israel be secure, but that any peace agreement "mustestablish Palestine as a homeland for the Palestinian people." Yikes!
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/18/opinion/18friedman.html?ref=opinion

-Op-Ed Columnist: Fed Up With Peace
A Tibetan monk, recently out of jail and still in pain from beatings by thepolice, said he reveres the Dalai Lama but also regards him as a politicalfailure. "We think the Dalai Lama has been too peaceful," he said. "There isa big discussion now about whether we should turn to violence."
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/18/opinion/18kristof.html?ref=opinion

-Editorial: Court Without a Quorum
Appointment to the United States Supreme Court is an extraordinary honorthat conveys the power to influence the course of American law and justice.
It does not seem too much to ask that sitting justices order their personalfinancial affairs to minimize the potential for conflicts of interestrequiring them to sit out cases.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/18/opinion/18sun3.html?ref=opinion

-Op-Ed Contributor: For Senate, Clinton (Bill)
WITH Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama trying to figure out whether it wouldwork for her to play teammate, the question keeps coming up of what to dowith Bill Clinton. No White House occupant would want a restless formerpresident hanging around.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/18/opinion/18bass.html?ref=opinion

-Running With the Enemy
"One thing Obama and McCain have in common is that they each have aVice-President problem," writes Hendrik Hertzberg at The New Yorker, whoalso offers a remedy:
In both cases the choice is fraught with peril. Do you go for someone whostrengthens your base or extends your appeal? Do you try for balance oramplification? How do you avoid saddling yourself with one ingrate and adozen disgruntled spurnees? The solution is obvious. Obama should ask McCainto be his running mate. McCain should ask Obama to be his. And both shouldsay yes.
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/05/16/running-with-the-enemy/index.html?ref=opinion

-Senator Kennedy Is Hospitalized After a Seizure
Senator Edward M. Kennedy, leader of the nation's most storied politicaldynasty, was airlifted to Boston from Cape Cod on Saturday where he washospitalized after suffering a seizure.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/18/washington/18kennedy.html?hp

-Chávez Seizes Greater Economic Power
Faced with shortages of foods, building materials and other staples,President Hugo Chávez is intensifying state control of the Venezuelaneconomy through a new wave of takeovers of private companies and thecreation of government-controlled ventures with allies like Cuba and Iran.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/18/world/americas/18venez.html


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

-From the Archive: Op-Classic, 1996: Gay Marriage, and Beyond
Essay: A Case for Polyandry
The institution of marriage has been put into play. A couple of judges inHawaii, tossing judicial restraint to the gentle breezes, have declaredthat marriage need no longer be construed as the legal union between a manand a woman. They have ruled that the denial of marriage licenses tohomosexual couples is discrimination on the basis of sex, unconstitutionalin that state.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/18/opinion/18opclassic.html?scp=2&sq=gay&st=nyt

-Club Seeks to Thin Woods It Camps In
Exclusive Group Wants the Cash
At the end of the lane across the Russian River from this north-woods town,behind the "Keep Out" signs and the plainclothes security guards, liesBohemian Grove, a mysterious summer playground of presidents, formerpresidents, princes, Cabinet members and titans of industry. The mostexclusive men's club in the world gathers each July for a secret conclavethat begins with a nocturnal ceremony featuring torches, incantations,hooded robes of red velvet and the incineration of a coffin beneath amassive sculpture of an owl.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/17/AR2008051701293.html?sub=AR

-Shaping a Nuclear Iran
The West's Diplomatic Goal Needs to Move From 'Suspension' to 'Transparency'
As President Bush addressed the Israeli parliament last week, denouncingnegotiations with recalcitrant regimes as the "false comfort ofappeasement," his diplomats, in conjunction with their Europeancounterparts, offered Iran another incentive package to stop enrichinguranium. Even though they are making another effort to disarm Iran throughmediation, the administration's approach is hopelessly defective. Beyondinsisting on onerous conditions that are unlikely to be met by any Iraniangovernment, the United States and its allies still hope that Tehran willtrade its enrichment rights for inducements. If Washington is going tomitigate the Iranian nuclear danger, it must discard the formula ofexchanging commercial contracts for nuclear rights and seek more imaginativesolutions.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/16/AR2008051603434.html

-Obama Has the Upper Hand. But McCain Can Still Take Him.
John McCain is America's favorite kind of candidate. With his record ofextraordinary patriotism and his distinctive Senate tenure, McCain is anominee whom voters from both parties -- and independents, too -- couldeasily support. But he has been dealt a terrible hand: a tanking economy, anunpopular war, a Republican incumbent whose approval ratings are at theirall-time low and a gloomy national mood, with 82 percent of Americans sayingin a Washington Post-ABC News poll last week that the country is on thewrong track. Political scientists add all that up and predict that theDemocrats are destined to win the White House. But I don't do politicalscience; I do politics, and I'm convinced that McCain can still win -- ifhe's willing to follow the road map below.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/16/AR2008051603729.html

-Hezbollah Emerges in Forefront of Power in Lebanon
Recent Show of Force Carries Shiite Group To Forefront of Power
Time haunts Lebanon.
At the entrance to Hamra, once the cosmopolitan heart of the capital, abillboard reads 1,188, the number of days since former prime minister Rafiqal-Hariri was assassinated in 2005, plunging the country into a crisis thatpersists today. A mile or so away, another marker stands frozen at one yearsince Hezbollah and its allies erected a tent city, occupying Beirut's tonydowntown. No one has updated it for the past 168 days.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/17/AR2008051701292.html?hpid=moreheadlines

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