NATIONAL & WORLD DIGEST - September 29, 2008

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

-The 3 A.M. Call
PAUL KRUGMAN
The next president will likely have to deal with some major financial emergencies. Barack Obama seems well informed. John McCain, on the other hand, scares me.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/29/opinion/29krugman.html?ref=opinion

-An Arms Race We're Sure to Lose
By GARY MILHOLLIN
Sanctions have not kept Iran from developing its nuclear program. The next U.S. president must do better to convince the mullahs that they are better off without it.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/29/opinion/29milhollin.html?ref=opinion

-Citigroup Buys Banking Operations of Wachovia
The sale would further concentrate Americans' bank deposits in the hands of just three banks: Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/30/business/30bank.html?hp

-How McCain Wins
WILLIAM KRISTOL
The only chance John McCain has to win the presidential election is if he overrules those of his aides who are trapped by conventional wisdom.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/29/opinion/29kristol.html?ref=opinion

-House Braces for a Tough Vote
President Bush on Monday urged Congress to act quickly on the $700 billion financial rescue plain.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/30/business/30bailout.html?hp

-Political Memo: On Bailout, Candidates Were Surely Themselves
It was classic John McCain and classic Barack Obama who grappled with the $700 billion bailout plan over the last week: Mr. McCain was by turns action-oriented and impulsive as he dive-bombed targets, while Mr. Obama was measured and cerebral and inclined to work the phones behind the scenes.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/29/us/politics/29campaign.html

-Union Leaders Confronted by Resistance to Obama
When Mike Pyne and other union foot soldiers knock on doors to promote Senator Barack Obama, they often confront a tricky challenge: how to persuade union members to vote on the basis of their wallets rather than on issues like abortion, gun rights and race.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/29/us/politics/29labor.html


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

-33 Pastors Flout Tax Law With Political Sermons
Defying a federal law that prohibits U.S. clergy from endorsing political candidates from the pulpit, an evangelical Christian minister told his congregation Sunday that voting for Sen. Barack Obama would be evidence of "severe moral schizophrenia."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/28/AR2008092802365.html?hpid=topnews

-No Grand Jury for Gonzales
Long-awaited report to call for prosecutor to continue probe of U.S. attorneys' firings.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/28/AR2008092801057.html?hpid=topnews

-McCain's Lost Chance
Obama Holds His Own on Foreign Policy
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/28/AR2008092802233.html?hpid=opinionsbox1

-Palin Is Ready? Please.
Fareed Zakaria
Will someone please put Sarah Palin out of her agony? Is it too much to ask that she come to realize that she wants, in that wonderful phrase in American politics, "to spend more time with her family"? Having stayed in purdah for weeks, she finally agreed to a third interview. CBS's Katie Couric questioned her in her trademark sympathetic style. It didn't help. When asked how living in the state closest to Russia gave her foreign-policy experience, Palin responded thus: It's very important when you consider even national-security issues with Russia as Putin rears his head and comes into the airspace of the United States of America. Where--where do they go? It's Alaska. It's just right over the border. It is from Alaska that we send those out to make sure that an eye is being kept on this very powerful nation, Russia, because they are right there. They are right next to--to our state."
http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/postglobal/fareed_zakaria/2008/09/palin_is_ready_please.html?hpid=opinionsbox1

-Bottled Water at Issue in Great Lakes
Conservation and Commerce Clash
Even as a 10-year campaign to block wholesale export of Great Lakes water came to a successful conclusion in Congress last week, some legislators and environmentalists vowed to continue their fight to close a "bottled-water loophole," a campaign that taps into a national debate over sales of H2O in disposable containers.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/28/AR2008092802997.html?hpid=sec-nation

-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. Our country has been told that a gargantuan government rescue of the private sector is necessary because the collapse of major financial institutions would lead to unthinkable outcomes for society. Almost as if by magic, our nation's leaders conjure up vast sums to respond to this crisis.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/26/AR2008092603265.html


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

-Full Text of the Draft Bailout Bill - PDF FILE
http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/bailoutbill20080928.pdf

-Summary of Bailout Bill
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122265013693884223.html?mod=article-outset-box


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

-Former New York Mayor Ed Koch promotes Barack Obama in South Florida
His four stops include two Jewish temples
Tamarac - Former New York Mayor Ed Koch took to the campaign trail Sunday stumping for Barack Obama in the Jewish community, considered one of the most important voting blocs in South Florida.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-flbkoch0929sbsep29,0,5055816.story

--Obama, McCain gingerly support $700B bailout agreement
"This is something that all of us will swallow hard and go forward with. The option of doing nothing is simply not an acceptable option," McCain said. Obama said he was inclined to back it "because I think Main Street is now at stake."
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/nationworld/politics/wire/sns-ap-meltdown-candidates,0,1026052.story

-Democrats watched financial crisis unfold
It isn't often that public outrage peaks so close to an election, but this is a rare moment in history when "we the people" can exact a price from the political leadership that has duped, scammed and lied, contributing mightily to the current financial mess. At the Senate Banking Committee hearings Tuesday, Democrats, led by Chairman Chris Dodd, of Connecticut, seemed to think the mortgage crisis, aided and abetted by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, AIG, Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers and other disasters, occurred on someone else's watch. Dodd, joined by ranking Republican Richard Shelby, of Alabama, criticized what he said was the ad hoc nature of the government's response to the financial crisis and complained that the Bush administration's proposals lack detail.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/opinion/sfl-24thomassbsep29,0,4719998.story

-Clarence Page: Obama is up against a 'Bubba' roadblock
What is Barack Obama's biggest remaining obstacle on his road to the White House? A nationally prominent Republican sums it up in a word: "Bubba." "The Bubba vote is there, and it's very real, and it is everywhere," former House Majority Leader Dick Armey recently said. "There's an awful lot of people in America, bless their heart, who simply are not emotionally prepared to vote for a black man." Sad, but true. I hate to nickname the problem "Bubba." I used to have a beloved Alabama uncle named Bubba.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/opinion/sfl-24pagesbsep29,0,5893797.story


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Al Franken - MoveOn.org
It's not enough to merely win this election. We've got to win big. Great-I can tell from your nodding head that you agree. Now, let's make it happen-by helping three champs win tight, crucial races: Jeff Merkley of Oregon, Larry Kissell of North Carolina, and, ahem, Al Franken of Minnesota. I'm not asking for $700 billion-just $10, $25, or whatever you can spare. Donate by clicking below:
https://pol.moveon.org/give/sept08.html?id=14073-5533006-gfovsXx&t=3


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From Ron Mills
ron@browardforchange.com
FLOW: The Film that Will Change the Way You Think About Water
The Sundance hit "FLOW: For Love of Water" is taking the country by storm and waking people up to our water crisis. Can anyone really own water? That was the questions that got French filmmaker Irena Salina inspired to take on a mammoth project -- chronicling the global water crisis and solutions -- from privatization to politics to pollution. Her creation, the award-winning film "FLOW: For Love of Water," was a Sundance hit and now is making its theatrical debut in theaters across the country. Her film includes interviews with some of the world's leading activists, scientists and policy makers. But it also looks at how everyday people are affected around the world -- from the United States to South Africa to India and the growing network of grassroots activists that are coming together. While the film is alarming, it is also empowering.
http://changeintallahassee.blogspot.com/2008/09/flow-film-that-will-change-way-you.html

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