NATIONAL & WORLD DIGEST - September 28, 2008

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

-Breakthrough Reached in Negotiations on Bailout
Officials said Congressional staff members would work to finalize the language of an agreement and draft a bill to be brought for a vote in the House on Monday.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/28/business/28bailout.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

-McCain Team Has Many Ties to Gambling
John McCain, Congress's most influential member on gambling issues, has a history with the industry complicated by personal ties and opposing loyalties. [...] Mr. McCain portrays himself as a Washington maverick unswayed by special interests, referring recently to lobbyists as "birds of prey." Yet in his current campaign, more than 40 fund-raisers and top advisers have lobbied or worked for an array of gambling interests - including tribal and Las Vegas casinos, lottery companies and online poker purveyors.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/28/us/politics/28gambling-web.html?hp

-McCain's Suspension Bridge to Nowhere
FRANK RICH
John McCain may be the first presidential candidate in our history to risk wrecking the country even before being voted into the Oval Office.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/28/opinion/28rich.html?ref=opinion

-Sound, but No Fury
MAUREEN DOWD
The presidential debate should have been a cinch for Barack Obama. But he willfully refuses to accept that debates are not a lecture hall; they're a joust.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/28/opinion/28dowd.html?ref=opinion

-Impulsive, Impetuous, Impatient
NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF
John McCain has become steadily more of a neocon than President Bush in his first term, prone to solving problems with stealth bombers rather than diplomacy.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/28/opinion/28kristof.html?ref=opinion

-In Financial Food Chains, Little Guys Can't Win
IMAGINE, if you will, that a man who had much to do with creating the present credit crisis now says he is the man to fix this giant problem, and that his work is so important that he will need a trillion dollars or so of your money. Then add that this man thinks he is so indispensable that he wants Congress to forbid any judicial or administrative questioning of anything he does with your dollars.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/28/business/28every.html


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

-Ecuador votes on new powers for leftist Correa
QUITO (Reuters) - Millions of Ecuadorians from the Galapagos islands to Indian mountain villages vote on Sunday in a referendum that leftist President Rafael Correa is expected to win, tightening his hold on the oil-exporting nation.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/28/AR2008092800134.html

-Obituaries: Screen Legend Paul Newman, 83; Embraced Loner, Iconoclast
Roles
Paul Newman, 83, the actor and sex symbol who surged to stardom by playing loners as well as criminal and moral outlaws -- anything to downplay his astonishing looks -- died of cancer Sept. 26 at his farmhouse near Westport, Conn.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/27/AR2008092702601.html

-The Palin Problem
If at one time women were considered heretical for swimming upstream against feminist orthodoxy, they now face condemnation for swimming downstream -- away from Sarah Palin.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/26/AR2008092603268.html

-McCain as the Alpha Male
There were no knockout blows in the first presidential debate of the fall, but John McCain outpointed Barack Obama often enough to encourage his followers that he can somehow overcome the odds and deny the Democrats the victory that has seemed to be in store for them.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/27/AR2008092701357.html

-What a Surge Can't Solve in Afghanistan
If there was one foreign policy issue on which Barack Obama and John McCain agreed during Friday night's debate, it was that the United States should send more troops to Afghanistan. The bipartisan enthusiasm for this surge is so strong that there has been relatively little discussion of whether this strategy makes sense.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/26/AR2008092603266.html

-No Rescue For the Hungry
When social services advocates like me hear that the cost of the federal bailout of the finance sector might top a trillion dollars, we're not quite sure how to process such a massive figure.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/26/AR2008092603265.html

-She's Not Such A Delicate Flower, Guys
CNN anchor Campbell Brown made waves last Tuesday when she said on the air that she had "had enough of the sexist treatment of Sarah Palin" -- by Sen. John McCain and his aides. "I call upon the McCain campaign to stop treating Sarah Palin like she is a delicate flower who will wilt at any moment," Brown declared. If Palin is "ready to be one heartbeat away from the presidency," the campaign should let the GOP vice presidential nominee "face down those pesky reporters just like Barack Obama did today, just like John McCain did today."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/26/AR2008092602830.html

-The Long-Term Cost
The pending bailout is only the first step toward restoring the country's financial stability.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/27/AR2008092702398.html

-Controlling Nicotine
Support for FDA regulation of cigarettes is growing. WITH THE SENATE a little preoccupied (see: $700 billion bailout) and set to adjourn in the next few days, it's understandable that some worthy legislation has been put on the back burner. Such is the case with a long-overdue bill that would bring regulation by Food and Drug Administration to cigarettes. Unless the Senate reconvenes for a lame-duck session, the bill is unlikely to pass this year. Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) has threatened to filibuster, and there's not enough time to override his opposition. Still, supporters of the legislation, which passed overwhelmingly in the House this summer, can take solace in the fact that Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) signed on as a co-sponsor Wednesday. Mr. Reid's support is likely to make the bill a priority for lawmakers next year.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/27/AR2008092702397.html

-Wall Street Crisis Favors Obama
If McCain can shift focus off economy, election may again be too close to call, strategists say.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/27/AR2008092702906.html?hpid=topnews

-Atheist soldier alleges discrimination by military
An atheist soldier says in a federal lawsuit that his superiors required him to be present for Christian prayers, and that the military allows fundamentalist Christians to proselytize.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/26/AR2008092603183.html


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Sun-Sentinel
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/
Go to the links for the following articles:

-High court returns to work
Drug liability, foul language on TV among cases
Against the backdrop of a tight presidential election that likely will shape its future, the Supreme Court goes back to work this week. The justices will face cases on whether the government can forbid foul language on television and whether drug makers can be sued by injured patients.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/nationworld/sfl-flascotus0928sbsep28,0,956930.story


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Wall Street Journal
http://online.wsj.com/public/us

-Hurricane Kyle Races Toward Coast
Hurricane Kyle plowed northward across the Atlantic toward Nova Scotia and the Gulf of Maine on Sunday, triggering Maine's first hurricane watch in 17 years. Kyle could make landfall in the Canadian provinces of Nova Scotia or New Brunswick, during the night or early Monday, according the National Hurricane Center in Miami.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122260504983183309.html


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

-If Palin were a male candidate . . .
By CARL HIAASEN
The vice presidential debate is set for next Thursday, and millions of voters will be watching to see if moderator Gwen Ifill of PBS behaves herself. Most journalists are still getting accustomed to the Sarah Rules, as established and enforced by John McCain's campaign team. The most important is Sarah Rule No. 1: Don't treat Gov. Palin like a male candidate, or you'll be accused of character assassination. Maybe this is why McCain has kept Palin sequestered from the press -- not because he's terrified she'll pull a Dan Quayle and say something goofy (as she did to Katie Couric), but because he gallantly wants to protect her from all the chauvinist meanies who would ask impertinent questions. Likewise, the same right-wing gasbags who've trashed Hillary Clinton for 16 years have morphed into sensitive souls when it comes to their own hockey-mom candidate. Each unsettling news revelation about Palin is automatically decried as a sexist smear.
http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/other-views/story/703133.html

-Lost credibility leads to lost leadership
By LEONARD PITTS JR.
lpitts@miamiherald.com
Memo to the next president: There's an old fable I'm sure you know. It's usually credited to Aesop, and the version I found online at storyarts.org, goes like this: ``There once was a shepherd boy who was bored as he sat on the hillside watching the village sheep. To amuse himself he took a great breath and sang out, ``Wolf! Wolf! The Wolf is chasing the sheep!'' [...] As the crisis we face is caused by the profligate way Wall Street has handled money, so President Bush's inability to rally the nation is caused by the profligate way he has handled credibility. Now, like the shepherd boy, he sees the wolf for real and tries to sound the alarm. Unfortunately, like that boy, his believability is spent, his integrity overdrawn, his credibility bankrupt.
http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/other-views/story/703139.html


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

-Some on the right are joining a chorus of criticism over Sarah Palin
John McCain's running mate and his sharp reactions to the nation's economic crisis have led several prominent conservative columnists to slam the senator as reckless and strident.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-palin28-2008sep28,0,1329253.story

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