Thursday, May 22, 2008

NATIONAL & WORLD NEWS May 22, 2008

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

-McCain Looks to Fill Ticket, and 3 Hopefuls Step Up
Senator John McCain of Arizona is set to meet with at least three potentialrunning mates at a gathering at his ranch this weekend in Arizona,suggesting that he is stepping up his search for a vice-presidentialcandidate as the Democratic contest heads toward a conclusion, according toRepublicans familiar with Mr. McCain's plans.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/22/us/politics/22veep.html?hp

-News Analysis: Advice From White House Is Not Always Followed
Israel, America's staunchest ally in the Middle East, just became the latestexample of a country that has decided it is better to deal with its foesthan to ignore them.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/22/washington/22assess.html?hp

-Editorial: What the F.B.I. Agents Saw
Does this sound familiar? Muslim men are stripped in front of female guardsand sexually humiliated. A prisoner is made to wear a dog's collar andleash, another is hooded with women's underwear. Others are shackled instress positions for hours, held in isolation for months, and threatenedwith attack dogs.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/22/opinion/22thu1.html?ref=opinion

-Senators Sharply Question Oil Officials
Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee vented their fury over highgasoline prices at executives of the nation's five largest oil companies onWednesday, grilling the oilmen over their multimillion-dollar pay packagesand warning them that Congress was intent on taking action that couldinclude a new tax on so-called windfall profits.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/22/business/22oil.html

-Clinton Signals She May Carry Fight to Convention
A day after Senator Barack Obama gathered a majority of pledged delegates inthe Democratic presidential nominating contest, Senator Hillary RodhamClinton defiantly sent out new signals Wednesday that she might take herfight for the nomination all the way to the party's convention in August.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/22/us/politics/22florida.html

-Theme Persists: Obama Outraises Clinton
Though Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton raised an impressive $21 million inApril, her campaign ended the month $20 million in debt and with SenatorBarack Obama more than $30 million ahead of her in cash on hand for theprimary season, according to their latest campaign finance reports.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/22/us/politics/22donate.html

-Study Finds Big Social Factor in Quitting Smoking
For years, smokers have been exhorted to take the initiative and quit: use anicotine patch, chew nicotine gum, take a prescription medication that canhelp, call a help line, just say no. But a new study finds that stopping isseldom an individual decision.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/22/science/22smoke.html

-Fear of Troop Exodus Fuels Debate on G.I. Bill
Ever since the G.I.'s came home from World War II, it has been the nation'spolicy to reward war veterans with college education. Now, a bipartisanproposal to expand that benefit significantly for today's veterans hasencountered a new complication: the military still needs its fighting menand women in uniform, not in classrooms.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/22/washington/22soldiers.html


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

-Middle Class Jitters
We middle-class Americans are in a funk. "The overarching economic narrativeof the 2008 campaign is the idea that life for the middle class has grownmore difficult," writes Paul Taylor of the Pew Research Center, whichrecently published a massive report on middle-class anxieties. By itssurvey, more than half of Americans believe they either have not moved aheadin the past five years (25 percent) or have fallen behind (31 percent). Pewpronounces this "the most downbeat short-term assessment of personal
progress in nearly half a century."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/21/AR2008052102427.html

-Pasture of Plenty
You thought you knew how bad the farm bill was.
"LIFE IS LIKE a box of chocolates," Forrest Gump's mother used to say. "Younever know what you're going to get." The same could be said of federalagricultural legislation. Arcane and often irrational, its subsidyprovisions can be difficult to understand and, sometimes, even difficult toidentify. Even after Congress passed a subsidy-riddled 673-page farm billlast week, with a price tag conservatively set at $289 billion, it was notentirely clear just how big a burden lawmakers had imposed on taxpayers.
Now, however, the fine print is coming into focus, and -- surprise! -- thebill could authorize up to $16 billion more in crop subsidies thanpreviously projected, according to the Agriculture Department.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/21/AR2008052102519.html

-Safeguarding Children
The Supreme Court upholds a carefully crafted law targeting childpornographers.
THE FIGHT against child pornography got a welcome boost this week when theSupreme Court upheld a law that makes it illegal for anyone to peddle orsolicit explicit images of real children.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/21/AR2008052102585.html

-McCain Stakes His Turf
When one of the Democratic Party's most astute strategists criticized JohnMcCain this week for attacking Barack Obama's desire to engage IranianPresident Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, I asked what the Republican presidentialcandidate ought to talk about in this campaign. "Health care and theeconomy," he replied. That is a sure formula for a Democratic victory, butit is one that McCain's campaign rejects.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/21/AR2008052102425.html

-Interrogation Tactics Were Challenged at White House
Five years ago, as troubling reports emerged about the treatment ofdetainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, a career lawyer at the Justice Departmentbegan a long and relatively lonely campaign to alert top Bush dministrationofficials to a strategy he considered "wrongheaded."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/21/AR2008052102668.html?hpid=topnews


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

-CONSERVATIVE IDEOLOGY
Pundits long on rhetoric, short on the facts
Don't read this column yet. by Leonard Pitts, Jr.
First, I want you to do something. Google ''Chris Matthews + Kevin James.''
This will bring up video of the latter, a conservative L.A. radio pundit,being questioned by the former last week on MSNBC's Hardball. You must seethis video.
http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/other_views/story/541056.html

-CELEBRITY ROUNDUP
Boy band backer gets 25 years for financial scam
The man who created the Backstreet Boys and 'N Sync has been sentenced to 25years in prison on four federal charges.
http://www.miamiherald.com/358/story/542432.html

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