NATIONAL & WORLD DIGEST - June 24, 2008

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

-Mormon church enters Calif. gay marriage fight
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is asking California membersto join the effort to amend that state's constitution to define marriage asbeing between a man and a woman.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Mormons-Gay-Marriage.html?scp=2&sq=gay&st=nyt

-Security Council Urges Zimbabwe to Halt Violence
The U.N. Security Council said a fair election would be impossible, as theopposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, said he would leave his sanctuary inthe Dutch Embassy in 48 hours.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/25/world/africa/25zimbabwe.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

-Wounds You Can't See by BOB HERBERT
In the absence of any general call for sacrifice, we have an ironcladobligation to look out for the short- and long-term needs of the troops wesend off to combat.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/24/opinion/24herbert.html?ref=opinion

-Survey Shows U.S. Religious Tolerance
Although a majority of Americans say religion is very important to them,nearly three-quarters of them say they believe that many faiths besidestheir own can lead to salvation, according to a survey by the Pew Forum onReligion and Public Life. The report, the U.S. Religious Landscape Survey,reveals a broad trend toward tolerance and an ability among many Americansto hold beliefs that might contradict the doctrines of their professedfaiths.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/24/us/24religion.html

-Court Voids Finding on Guantánamo Detainee
In the first civilian judicial review of the government's evidence forholding any of the Guantánamo Bay detainees, a federal appeals court hasordered that one of them be released or given a new military hearing. Theruling, made known Monday in a notice from the United States Court ofAppeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, overturned a Pentagon tribunal's decision in the case of one of 17 Guantánamo detainees who are ethnicUighurs, a Muslim minority from western China.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/24/washington/24combatant.html?adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1214316384-cKUMSIXlYNHYMWWad+J4jQ


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

-Mr. Mugabe Wins: His campaign of terror will keep him in power, barring an international intervention.
ROBERT MUGABE'S campaign of terror against the people of Zimbabwe issucceeding. On Sunday, Morgan Tsvangirai, the opposition leader who defeatedhim in the March 29 presidential election, withdrew from a runoff electionthat had been scheduled for Friday, citing the murder of 86 of hissupporters and the torture, beating or displacement of tens of thousands ofothers. Yesterday, Mr. Tsvangirai sought refuge in the Dutch Embassy inHarare; he has been repeatedly detained by police while attempting tocampaign, and his deputy has been imprisoned on treason charges. As a hostof world leaders affirmed, Mr. Tsvangirai's decision was justified. But italso opened the way for Mr. Mugabe to hold a rigged vote and then awardhimself another mandate as president.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/23/AR2008062301851.html

-Restoring the Vote
Gov. Kaine is right to grant felons a say in the democratic process. SOME STATE Republicans object to Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine's effort toenfranchise felons who have completed their prison sentences. The contentionis that Mr. Kaine (D) wants to give thousands of felons the vote in a plotto deliver Virginia's 13 electoral votes to Democratic Sen. Barack Obama inthe presidential election. We have no reason to believe Mr. Kaine is actingon political motives, but even if he were, his actions affirm a truth thatall but a few states have accepted: Felons who pay their debt to societyshould not be denied the right to vote.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/23/AR2008062302048.html

-Army General's Nomination Called Historic
President Bush has nominated Lt. Gen. Ann E. Dunwoody to take over theArmy's Materiel Command as a four-star general, and if confirmed by theSenate she would be the first woman in U.S. history to receive such a highmilitary rank. In announcing the nomination yesterday, Defense SecretaryRobert M. Gates praised Dunwoody's "extraordinary leadership and devotion toduty" and called the choice "an historic occasion." There are 57 active-dutyfemale general officers in the U.S. armed forces, five of whom arethree-star generals. About 5 percent of the Army's general officers arewomen.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/23/AR2008062301980.html?hpid=moreheadlines


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

-Obama on wrong side of Elian Gonzalez saga
Eight years after the furor over the repatriation of Elian Gonzalez to Cubapossibly cost Al Gore the state of Florida in his 537-vote loss to George W.Bush, the international custody saga has returned to haunt anotherDemocratic presidential nominee, Barack Obama. With two top advisers whoplayed key roles in the episode- Greg Craig, who represented Elian's fatherin Cuba, and Eric Holder, then a Clinton administration deputy attorneygeneral when federal agents stormed the Miami home of Gonzalez' relatives toremove the then-six-year-old and return him to his father in Cuba-Obama nowfinds himself on the wrong side of an emotional issue in a battlegroundstate.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0608/11295.html

-Nelson on mark in criticism of Electoral College
OUR POSITION: In what election can the winner of the popular vote not takethe prize? Only the most important. At the end of the most tangled andtroubled presidential primary in recent memory comes renewed calls for achange in the process we've used to select a president for two centuries.
http://www.sun-herald.com/Newsstory.cfm?pubdate=062408&story=op2.htm&folder=NewsArchive2

-Let American Muslims share the stage
LAST WEEK, two Muslim women in headscarves were moved from their seatsbehind Senator Barack Obama's stage where they would have been visible onvideo monitors. The campaign has apologized to the women, and explained thatthe request by campaign volunteers was "counter to Obama's commitment tobring Americans together."
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2008/06/24/let_american_muslims_share_the_stage/?rss_id=Boston+Globe+--+Today%27s+paper+A+to+Z

-Obama's right to opt out of public campaign funding
Barack Obama's decision to forgo public funds will bring joy to opponents ofcampaign finance reform. But to say that Obama has killed public financingis to miss the point. The current system began to unravel eight years ago.George W. Bush became the first candidate since the post-Watergate reformsof the mid-1970s to decline public money in the primaries, thus avoiding thelimits it imposed.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/editorial/outlook/5852382.html

- Too Good to Check
I have no way of knowing if this is true, though the source isexcellent...but the word in Republican circles is that John McCain is quitefrustrated by the vice presidential selection process because he can't gowith any of his top three choices. They are:
http://www.time-blog.com/swampland/2008/06/too_good_to_check.html

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