NATIONAL & WORLD DIGEST - August 04, 2008

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

-China Orders Highest Alert for Olympics
By EDWARD WONG and KEITH BRADSHER
Chinese officials have thrown an almost smothering blanket of securityacross Beijing in preparation for the Games.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/04/sports/olympics/04china.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

-Ragtag Taliban Show Tenacity in Afghanistan
By CARLOTTA GALL
The mounting toll inflicted by insurgents has refocused the attention ofAmerica's military commanders and its presidential contenders on the Afghanwar.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/04/world/asia/04taliban.html?hp

-Applications Spur Carriers to Relax Grip on Cellphones
In the first 10 days after Apple opened its App Store for the iPhone,consumers downloaded more than 25 million applications, ranging from gameslike Super Monkey Ball to tools like New York City subway maps. It wasnothing short of revolutionary, not only because the number was so high butalso because iPhone users could do it at all.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/04/technology/04open.html

-Op-Ed Columnist: Aux barricades! France and the Jews
It's not quite the Dreyfus Affair, at least not yet. But France is dividedagain over power and the Jews. While the United States has been debatingThe New Yorker's caricature of Barack Obama as a Muslim, France has gone offthe deep end over a brief item in the country's leading satirical magazineportraying the relationship between President Nicolas Sarkozy's fast-risingson, Jean, and his Jewish fiancée.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/04/opinion/04cohen.html?ref=opinion


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

-Obama Leads but Doubt Prevails Among Key Bloc
Low-wage workers prefer Democrat 2 to 1 over McCain, but are skepticaleither candidate will fix economy or improve health care, survey shows.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/03/AR2008080301969.html?hpid=topnews

-Tropical Storm Edouard Gaining Speed Over Gulf
Emergency teams were activated as residents along the Gulf of Mexicoprepared to get hit with another round of tropical weather for the secondtime in less than a month. Tropical Storm Edouard gained speed as it movedwest Monday and was expected to strengthen to a near-hurricane before makinglandfall somewhere in Texas or southwest Louisiana.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/03/AR2008080301138.html?hpid=moreheadlines


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

-Are we being fleeced at the refinery?
It's a confusing world. Remember, for example, when oil was $20 a barrel,and oil experts said that no one should get in a panic and start conserving.There was plenty of oil out there that wasn't economical to pump at $20 butwould surely appear if the price ever got to $40 or $45 a barrel. So we weretold.
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/opinion/content/opinion/epaper/2008/08/04/a12a_blackburncol_0804.html

-Economic models predict clear Obama win in November
It really is the economy, stupid! Economic models that have correctlypredicted the winner of almost all post-war U.S. presidential elections sayrecession fears will secure a victory for Barack Obama in November.
http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSN0138628820080801

-If Obama's A Celebrity, What's McCain?
Politico: As McCamp Camp Tries To Brand Obama A "Celebrity Politician," It'sWorth Considering McCain's Own Media Status
If Barack Obama gave new meaning to the term "political celebrity," thenJohn McCain helped define it.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/08/03/politics/politico/main4317810.shtml?source=RSSattr=Politics_4317810

-Flocking to faith
In the old days, politicians would slip preachers some hundreds under thetable and preachers would deliver the flock on Election Day. It wasborderline illegal, but at least it left the Constitution alone. The samecould not be said of the Bush administration's faith-based initiative, apolitical bribe to the religious right that put a hole in the 1st Amendmentbig enough for Christ himself to walk through.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/chi-oped0804pollittaug04,0,4057744.story

-Drill for more oil
If you could boil down the ideal U.S. energy policy to a few words it wouldbe this: We have to stop buying foreign oil. U.S. dependence on it createstoo much political, economic, environmental and national securityvulnerability. The nation needs to find alternatives.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/chi-0804edit1aug04,0,3534301.story

-Answering McCain's Attacks
As a week of name-calling and rapid responses faded into history, politicalpractitioners seemed to agree that John McCain had diminished himself andhis straight-talk brand with negative ads and petty misrepresentations. Yet,surprisingly, a consensus also seemed to be forming that Barack Obama, atleast tactically, had not come out on top. Which raises the question: Howshould Obama respond?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/03/AR2008080301574.html

-ON THE MEDIA: Obama's crime? Acting too presidential
So the pundits' verdict is in: Obama is too confident. It all would be funnyif many people didn't seem to be inhaling this multimedia stink bomb as ifit were fragrant truth. America, meet Barack The Arrogant.
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-onthemedia4-2008aug04,0,2648035.story?track=rss

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