NATIONAL & WORLD NEWS - June 15, 2008

**IF YOU CAN'T ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE, CONTACT US AT rays.list@comcast.net and we'll be happy to send the full article.


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

-Letters From Vermont By BOB HERBERT
Despite the focus on the housing crisis, gasoline prices and the economy ingeneral, the press has not done a good job capturing the intense economicanxiety - and even dread, in some cases - that has gripped tens of millionsof working Americans, including many who consider themselves solidly middleclass.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/14/opinion/14herbert.html?em&ex=1213588800&en=64047ec569a93b88&ei=5087%0A

-When Mom and Dad Share It All
How do you truly split domestic duties? Spouses who are determined to adhereto "equally shared parenting" do it minute by minute. On her first day backto work after a four-month maternity leave, Amy Vachon woke at dawn to nurseher daughter, Maia. Then she fixed herself a healthful breakfast, pumped abottle of breast milk for the baby to drink later in the day, kissed thelittle girl goodbye and headed for the door.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/15/magazine/15parenting-t.html?scp=5&sq=GAY&st=nyt

-The Weapon of Rape
The United Nations and its member states seem to finally be recognizing thasystematic mass rape is at least as much an international outrage as, say,pirated DVDs. [...] World leaders fight terrorism all the time, with summitmeetings and sound bites and security initiatives. But they have studiouslyignored one of the most common and brutal varieties of terrorism in theworld today.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/15/opinion/15kristof.html?ref=opinion

-Working Toward College, a True Juggling Act
Key West over the years has nurtured all kinds of creativity, includingpublic turtle races and Ernest Hemingway's novels. But in an island habitatnow dominated by tourists and aging hippies, Reid has become a sign of KeyWest's transformation from a freewheeling party mecca to a clean-cut familygetaway.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/15/us/15keywest.html?hp

-Angry Clinton Women ? McCain? by FRANK RICH
The same Republican operatives who gleefully insulted Hillary Clinton arenow peddling the fable that her female supporters will desert their ownparty en masse. [...] TEN years ago John McCain had to apologize forregaling a Republican audience with a crude sexual joke about Hillary andChelsea Clinton and Janet Reno. Last year he had to explain why he didn't somuch as flinch when a supporter asked him on camera, "How do we beat thebitch?" But these days Mr. McCain just loves the women.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/15/opinion/15rich.html?ref=opinion

-Letter From Cairo by THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
If prices keep soaring, food and fuel could reshape politics around thedeveloping world as much as nationalism or Communism did in their days.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/15/opinion/15friedman.html?ref=opinion

-W. Regrets Almost Nothing by MAUREEN DOWD
During his farewell European tour, President Bush was still pushing, butmore softly, the same refrain that turned Europe so virulentlyanti-American. [...] Newsstands carry a whole magazine devoted to "Larévolution OBAMA." The papers are avidly following Obama's post-Hillaryquest to "cherche les femmes," and on Friday, Le Figaro led with theheadline that he had widened his lead over his "rival républicain." Therewas nothing on Le Figaro's front page about that other American guy who wasover here, munching on langoustes at the Élysée Palace with Sarko and theseductress Carla (animated and dazzling with a midnight blue dress and ahopelessly long, thin cigarette).
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/15/opinion/15dowd.html?ref=opinion


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

-Smugglers Had Design For Advanced Warhead
An international smuggling ring that sold bomb-related parts to Libya, Iranand North Korea also managed to acquire blueprints for an advanced nuclearweapon, according to a draft report by a former top U.N. arms inspector thatsuggests the plans could have been shared secretly with any number ofcountries or rogue groups.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/14/AR2008061402032.html?hpid=topnews

-Obama's Ex-Church 'Dismayed'
His decision to quit black congregation amid controversy leaves lastingwounds on both sides. [..] And some of the church's 8,000 members -- aswell as some other black pastors -- feel abandoned, betrayed andmisunderstood after their contentious turn in the national spotlight.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/14/AR2008061401829.html?hpid=topnews

-Rural Illinois May Offer Clues to Obama's Electability
Courting of Rural Areas Began in '96
The rookie state senator from Chicago had driven 340 miles to exploresouthern Illinois, but Barb Brown could muster only 20 Democrats in thissmall town on the Mississippi River to have breakfast with him. She askedher niece and sister-in-law, who were helping in the kitchen, to come out topad the audience.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/14/AR2008061400889.html?hpid=topnews

-COURT ORDER: It Isn't Tilting in The Same Old Ways
With just two weeks left in the Supreme Court's term, everything we thoughtwe knew about the Roberts court seems wrong. The question now is: Who plansto tell the presidential candidates?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/13/AR2008061303178.html?hpid=opinionsbox1

-Habeas Ruling Lays Bare the Divide Among Justices
The Supreme Court's decision that detainees held in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba,have a right to challenge their imprisonment before a judge revealed invivid detail the justices' deep divide over the role of the judiciary inwartime.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/14/AR2008061401541.html?hpid=topnews

-Read My Lips: We Need These Taxes
Let's imagine an alternate universe. The U.S. government is running a largeand growing deficit. Not far down the road it faces huge increases in SocialSecurity and Medicare costs. Naturally, the candidates for president want toremedy this by raising revenue. They don't want us to bequeath biggerdeficits to our children or stake our future on foreigners' willingness tokeep lending us money.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/04/AR2008060403270.html

-A Partnership With Iraq
The Shiite government signals a desire for an alliance with the United States. Shouldn't that be welcomed?
THOUGH IT was hardly noticed in Washington, Iraq's Shiite-led governmentsent a powerful message to Iran and to the Middle East last week. PrimeMinister Nouri al-Maliki, whose coalition is often portrayed as an Iranianclient, traveled to Tehran for a meeting with supreme leader Ayatollah AliKhamenei. The ayatollah bluntly declared that Iraq's "most importantproblem" was the continuing presence of U.S. troops. He pressured Mr. Malikito stop negotiating a package of agreements with the Bush administrationthat would delineate a "strategic framework" between Iraq and the UnitedStates and provide for the deployment of U.S. forces beyond the expirationof a U.N. mandate at the end of this year. Mr. Maliki refused.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/14/AR2008061401448.html


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

-HOT TOPICS: Co-host Behar sounds off on her many views
Joy Behar is a funny woman, but the longtime co-host of The View also isnever without an opinion. So it was a real kick having a phone chat with herone morning after she finished taping an episode of the dynamic chatfest shehas been an integral part of for 11 years.
http://www.miamiherald.com/tropical_life/story/569403.html

-Auschwitz survivor keeps promise to tell victims' story
A Holocaust survivor, now age 85, has spent her life trying to fulfill apromise she made to fellow Auschwitz victims to tell the world their story.
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/broward/story/570707.html


=
Forwarded from Susan Frishkorn
frishkorn@bellsouth.net
Go to this link for the following article:

-35 Reasons To Call (202) 225-5126 by Larry Beinhart
On June 10, 2008, Dennis Kucinich introduced 35 Articles of Impeachmentagainst George W. Bush.
On June 11, 2008, they were referred to the Judiciary Committee. Accordingto NPR, the Associated Press and the like, they were sent there to die.That's too bad. Because George Bush has committed "high crimes and misdemeanors."
Impeachable offenses. A lot of them. He, and his administration, have alsocreated a cloud of confusion and obfuscation around everything that'shappened in his administration. Every investigation has ground to a halt,lost in corporate lawyers tricks - refusal to hand over documents, lostdocuments, redacted documents, officials who can't remember, or, at lastresort, refuse to answer subpoenas.

According to the Articles of Impeachment:
. The administration consciously lied about the reasons to go to war. .
Conspired to create a secret propaganda campaign to go to war. . Failed to
meet the terms set out in the bill that allowed the president to go to war,
thereby making the war illegal. . Failed to meet the terms set by
international law for war, therefore engaging in a "war of aggression," a
war crime. . Engaged in Torture . Illegal Detention: Detaining Indefinitely
And Wit hout Charge Persons Both U.S. Citizens and Foreign Captives .
Rendition: Kidnapping People and Taking Them Against Their Will to "Black
Sites" Located in Other Nations, Including Nations Known to Practice
Torture . Imprisoning Children . Failure, as the occupying power, to protect
the civilian population of Iraq. . Providing immunity for criminal acts by
contractors, thereby condoning murder, rape and other crimes.
. Spied on Americans without warrants. . Intentionally subverting and
refusing to enforce laws through signing statements. . Tampering with Free
and Fair Elections, . Corruption of the Administration of Justice
. Conspiracy to Violate the Voting Rights Act of 1965 . Obstruction of the
Investigation into the Attacks of September 11, 2001 . Denial of Habeas
Corpus Among other things.

Many of these are on the record as true. If congress says the hell with it,too much trouble to bring that up, and we don't want to look vindictive, andjust shrugs its shoulders, that makes them co-conspirators. The man whowill now make the decision to stash the charges on the shelf until afterJanuary, 2009, when Bush is gone, or to open up hearings, is John Conyers.John Conyers phone number is (202) 225-5126.
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/06/14/9621/


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

-Ugly: The Future of the Republican Party by David Michael Green
Republicans are going down.
Let me say that again ('cause it feels so good): Republicans are going down.
Hard. A tsunami this way cometh, and it's got GOP loaded in its GPS. Apartfrom the fact that the Democrats are about to nominate a black candidate ina still racist white country, there could hardly be a more perfect storm ofRepublican-focused discontent imaginable in 2008. And Obama's color mayactually turn out to be a neutral factor, or even a net gain. AfricanAmericans are going to come out in droves to vote for him, possibly evenputting certain Jim Crow states, such as North Carolina, into play for theDemocrats for the first time since the civil rights movement. Moreover,young people are going to turn out and vote in huge numbers this year, andit won't be John McCain who is the glimmer in their eyes.
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/06/13/9592/

-Black conservatives conflicted on Obama campaign
Black conservative talk show host Armstrong Williams has never voted for aDemocrat for president. That could change this year with Barack Obama as theDemocratic Party's nominee.
http://apnews.excite.com/article/20080614/D91A1VUO0.html

-Democrats' Vote Drive in Louisiana Stirs Concern
A Democratic voter registration drive in largely black neighborhoods ofLouisiana has swamped the state's voter registrar offices, forcing them tohire new staff members and work 12-hour days to process thousands ofapplications.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/15/us/politics/15vote.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

-Dems call on McCain to return fundraiser's $300,000
The Democratic Party is turning up the pressure on Republican presidentialcandidate Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), saying he should return the moneyraised by a Texas oilman who once compared rape to bad weather.
http://thehill.com/campaign-2008/dems-call-on-mccain-to-return-fundraisers-300000-2008-06-14.html

-Obama and McCain on Immigration: Life vs. Death
A recent story by Maribel Hastings of La Opinión newspaper provides the mostcomprehensive analysis yet of the similarities and differences between JohnMcCain and Barack Obama around immigration policy. According to Hastings,"Both candidates support construction of a wall at the southern U.S. border.
But the most important differences are less obvious and have more to do withwhat kind of reform the candidates advocate for and try to get approved,according to Cecilia Muñoz, vice president of the National Council of LaRaza (NCLR)."
http://www.alternet.org/rights/88109/

-VA ban on voter registration drives upsets rights groups
Agency says efforts would detract from care
Voting rights groups are criticizing the Department of Veterans Affairs forits decision to ban registration drives among the veterans living atfederally run nursing homes, homeless shelters and rehabilitation centersacross the country.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/politics/5837198.html

-Court corrects Bush on arbitrary arrests
It shouldn't be necessary for the Supreme Court to tell the president thathe can't have individuals taken into custody, spirited to a remote prisoncamp and held indefinitely, with no legal right to argue that they've beenunjustly imprisoned -- not even on grounds of mistaken identity. But thepresident in question, sigh, is George W. Bush, who has taken a chainsaw tothe rule of law with the same manic gusto he displays in clearing brush athis Texas ranch.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080615/OPINION03/806150308/-1/rss

-The dumbing down of voters
THE THOUGHT occurs to almost everybody, I would suppose, that politics todayis conducted at a lower level than it used to be. Not many voted againstWilliam Howard Taft because he was fat or Abraham Lincoln because he wasthin. One can't imagine Franklin Roosevelt being judged by how badly hebowled or how convincingly he knocked back a tumble of scotch. Indeed,studies show that the speeches presidents gave a half-century ago werepitched at the 12th-grade level - five grades above the level of speechesgiven by presidents over the last generation. Which brings up a paradox.
Decade by decade Americans are getting smarter and smarter, and decade bydecade our politics is getting dumber and dumber. How can we explain it? In1940 six in 10 Americans hadn't gone past the eighth grade. Today, mostAmericans have attended college.
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2008/06/15/the_dumbing_down_of_voters/?rss_id=Boston+Globehttp://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2008/06/15/the_dumbing_down_of_voters/?rss_id=Boston+Globe+--+Today%27s+paper+A+to+Z+--+Today%27s+paper+A+to+Z

=

[Send your comments about articles to Rays.List@Comcast.net]
#####