NATIONAL & WORLD DIGEST - August 29, 2008

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New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/
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-McCain Chooses Palin as Running Mate
In a surprise move, Senator John McCain chose Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska as his running mate on Friday, shaking up the political world at a time when his campaign has been trying to attract women, especially disaffected supporters of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, McCain officials confirmed. In choosing Ms. Palin - a 44-year-old conservative Christian and self-described "hockey mom" who has been governor for less than two years -the McCain campaign reached far outside the Washington Beltway in an election in which the Democratic nominee, Senator Barack Obama, is running on a platform of change. Ms. Palin, a former mayor of the small town of Wasilla and beauty pageant queen, first rose to prominence as a whistle-blower uncovering ethical misconduct in state government. The selection amounted to a gamble that an infusion of new leadership - and the novelty of the Republican Party's first female candidate for vice president - would more than compensate for the risk that Ms. Palin could undercut one of the McCain campaign's central arguments, its claim that Mr. Obama is too inexperienced to be president.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/30/us/politics/29palin.html?hp=&pagewanted=print

-Obama Takes Aim at Bush and McCain With a Forceful Call to Change America
Barack Obama accepted the Democratic Party presidential nomination onThursday, declaring that the "American promise has been threatened" by eight years under President Bush and that John McCain represented a continuationof policies that undermined the nation's economy and imperiled its standingaround the world.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/29/us/politics/29dems.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

-News Analysis: In Speech, Bringing Lofty Words Down to Earth
Good, great or something else, Senator Barack Obama's acceptance speechThursday night unquestionably confronted two of his greatest challenges.One was to help voters, in emotion-laden language, to connect his promise of"change" to more earthly policy proposals, the other to show he could takethe fight to Senator John McCain over Mr. Obama's own image and the best wayforward for the nation.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/29/us/politics/29assess.html?_r=1&hp=&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&adxnnlx=1220015091-fFQVS3y28K0aYiAkOTr/Qw

-Op-Ed Columnist: Feeling No Pain
My first reaction to Bill Clinton's convention speech was sheer professional jealousy: nobody, but nobody, has his ability to translate economic wonkeryinto plain, forceful English. In effect, Mr. Clinton provided an executivesummary of the new Census report on income, poverty and health insurance -but he did it so eloquently, so seamlessly, that there was no sense that hewas giving his audience a lecture.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/29/opinion/29krugman.html?ref=opinion

-In Texas School, Teachers Carry Books and Guns
Students in this tiny town of grain silos and ranch-style houses spent muchof the first couple of days in school this week trying to guess which oftheir teachers were carrying pistols under their clothes.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/29/us/29texas.html


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Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/
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-So Many Miles From Selma
"I cried on Monday when Michelle spoke," Rep. John Lewis told me Wednesdayat the Pepsi Center, "and I know that on Thursday night at the stadium I'llcry again." Lewis, as every schoolchild should know, is one of the fewlions of the civil rights movement still with us. As a Freedom Rider, he waspummeled by white Alabama mobs in 1961. As chairman of the StudentNonviolent Coordinating Committee, he spoke alongside Martin Luther King Jr.at the March on Washington in 1963. His pate is scarred from a brutalbeating administered by Alabama state troopers at the Edmund Pettus Bridgeduring the first Selma-to-Montgomery march in 1965. Lewis has earned theright to shed tears of amazement and joy.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/28/AR2008082802853.html

-A Federal Shield Law
The Senate should pass a bill that would protect reporters and theirsources. A SENATE BILL that got mauled in the run-up to the summer recessbut that has momentum for passage in the fall is the Free Flow ofInformation Act, a law that would protect the relationship betweenjournalists and their sources. The District of Columbia and 49 statesalready do so. While we have a concern about one aspect of the legislation,this shield is needed on the federal level.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/28/AR2008082803206.html

-Iraq and China Sign $3 Billion Oil Contract
Deal Is First of Its Kind Since InvasionBAGHDAD, Aug. 28 -- Iraq and Chinasigned a $3 billion deal this week to develop a large Iraqi oil field, thefirst major commercial oil contract here with a foreign company since the2003 U.S.-led invasion.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/28/AR2008082802200.html?hpid=moreheadlines

-Preparing for Mass Exodus As Gustav Gathers Strength
Determined to avoid the mistakes made when Hurricane Katrina devastated theGulf Coast, federal and state officials began preparations for massiveevacuations if it becomes clear that Tropical Storm Gustav will sweep overthe region with the same force as Katrina. Homeland Security SecretaryMichael Chertoff, in New Orleans to meet with Mayor C. Ray Nagin (D) andLouisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R), said that as of Thursday afternoon, mostestimates projected that Gustav, which is expected to strengthen into ahurricane, would strike between Texas and Florida early next week, "with areal possibility of getting an impact in Louisiana."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/28/AR2008082800311.html?hpid=topnews


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Sun-Sentinel
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/
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-Gov. Charlie Crist picks his first Supreme Court justice
Seizing an unprecedented opportunity to shape the Florida Supreme Court, Gov. Charlie Crist began Thursday wiping away the last remnant of Democratic power in Tallahassee by naming his first justice to a court best known for its decision in favor of Al Gore in the 2000 presidential recount. Crist, a Republican, handed conservatives a victory by choosing Lakeland appellate judge Charles Canady, 54, to an at-large seat on the seven-member court. Canady is the first of four selections Crist will make in coming months.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/florida/sfl-flfjustices0829sbaug29,0,4452184.story


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Fort Report
http://www.fortreport.com/
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-GOP Weighs Delaying Convention For Gustav
Party Officials Say Storm's Potential Impact On Gulf Coast Being Considered Republican officials said yesterday that they are considering delaying thestart of the GOP convention in Minneapolis-St. Paul because of TropicalStorm Gustav, which is on track to hit the Gulf Coast, and possibly NewOrleans, as a full-force hurricane early next week.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/08/29/politics/washingtonpost/main4395188.shtml?source=RSSattr=HOME_4395188

-U. of I. sticks with plan for John Edwards speech
Student group paid $65,000 before scandal made news
A University of Illinois student group has agreed to pay $65,000 to bringdisgraced former Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards to speak atcampus this fall. The Illini Union Board, which arranges lectures, concertsand other events for students, signed a contract with Edwards before headmitted this month to an extramarital affair with a former campaign worker.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chicago/chi-uofi-edwards_29aug29,0,2414846.story

-Senate might decide Stevens' electoral future if convicted
If Ted Stevens is convicted in his federal trial next month, his name willstill appear as the Republican candidate for Senate on Alaska's Novemberelection ballot. And if the 84-year-old Stevens then wins his seventh fullterm and refuses to resign, it could fall to his colleagues to decidewhether he should be expelled
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/legislative/senate/2008-08-28-stevens-senate_N.htm?csp=34

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