Sunday, December 07, 2008

NATIONAL & WORLD DIGEST December 07, 2008

A note from Ray's List,

We're having problems with Comcast. Hopefully, we'll have this resolved within a couple days. In the meantime, we'll send Ray's List when we can. Best to you! Ray and Michael

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

-Editorial: The Pakistan Connection
Pakistan's government has fiercely denied any role in the terrorist attacks on Mumbai that killed more than 160 people. We hope that is true. But there are strong signs that the terrorists were members of the Pakistani-based group Lashkar-e-Taiba, a former proxy of Islamabad's powerful intelligence service that - despite being officially banned - continues to operate in plain sight in Pakistan.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/06/opinion/06sat1.html?ref=opinion

-Op-Ed Contributor: The Real Bill Ayers
Chicago: IN the recently concluded presidential race, I was unwillingly thrust upon the stage and asked to play a role in a profoundly dishonest drama. I refused, and here's why. Unable to challenge the content of Barack Obama's campaign, his opponents invented a narrative about a young politician who emerged from nowhere, a man of charm, intelligence and skill, but with an exotic background and a strange name. The refrain was a question: "What do we really know about this man?"
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/06/opinion/06ayers.html?ref=opinion

-Obama Pledges Massive Public Works Program
President-elect Barack Obama committed Saturday to the largest public works building program since the creation of the interstate highway system a half century ago as he seeks to put together a plan to resuscitate the reeling economy.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/07/us/politics/07radio.html?hp

-Simpson Sentenced to at Least 9 Years in Prison
Four times, in a halting, broken voice, a humbled O. J. Simpson said Friday, "I'm sorry." Yet for all his compunction about the September 2007 raid and armed robbery at a casino hotel for which he was convicted of 12 felonies, Mr. Simpson also continued to insist that he did not think at the time that he had done anything illegal.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/06/us/06simpson.html?hp

-Kennedy Is Said to Cast Her Eye on Senate Seat
Caroline Kennedy, a daughter of America's most storied political family who for many years fiercely guarded her privacy, is considering whether to pursue the Senate seat expected to be vacated by Hillary Rodham Clinton early next year, a family member said Friday.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/06/nyregion/06demwomen.html?hp

-Thieves Winning Online War, Maybe in Your PC
Internet security is broken, and nobody seems to know quite how to fix it. Despite the efforts of the computer security industry and a half-decade struggle by Microsoft to protect its Windows operating system, malicious software is spreading faster than ever. The so-called malware surreptitiously takes over a PC and then uses that computer to spread more malware to other machines exponentially. Computer scientists and security researchers acknowledge they cannot get ahead of the onslaught.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/06/technology/internet/06security.html?hp


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

-An Enduring Crisis for the Black Family
In the nearly half-century in which we have gone from George Wallace to Barack Obama, America has another, less hopeful story to tell about racial progress, one that may be even harder to reverse. In 1965, a young assistant secretary of labor named Daniel Patrick Moynihan stumbled upon data that showed a rise in the number of black single mothers. As Moynihan wrote in a now-famous report for the Johnson administration, especially troubling was that the growth in illegitimacy, as it was universally called then, coincided with a decline in black male unemployment. Strangely, black men were joining the labor force more, but they were marrying -- and fathering -- less.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/05/AR2008120503088.html

-A Pre-Nup for the West Wing
To judge by the moans coming from Democratic lobbyists eager to serve in the next administration, Barack Obama's transition has struck a nerve with its new rules regarding conflicts of interest. But if the next president really wants to transform the culture of Washington, he'll go further and close down another revolving door: the ability of top aides to cash in by peddling tales of what they saw.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/05/AR2008120503170.html

-Mr. Putin's Bluff
The Russian leader claims to be expecting major concessions from the Obama administration. VLADIMIR PUTIN'S unsubtle campaign to intimidate President-elect Barack Obama continues apace. In a broadcast appearance Thursday, the Russian prime minister claimed to have detected some "positive signals" from the incoming administration. For example, "we hear from people close to the president-elect" that "there should be no rush" toward NATO membership for Ukraine and Georgia, because "one should not spoil relations with Russia." Also, "we already hear that [Obama] should rethink the expediency of deploying" missile defense systems.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/05/AR2008120503360.html

-Test Obstacles
A recommendation for routine HIV testing is going unheeded. THE FEAR and stigma surrounding HIV and AIDS make it difficult to persuade people to get tested. A series of studies presented at a conference in Arlington last month showed that clinicians and insurance companies also are obstacles to the care and counseling needed to prolong lives and protect the uninfected. As a result, far too many cases of HIV infection go undiagnosed and untreated.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/05/AR2008120503361.html

-Economy: Obama Offers Highlights of His Economic Stimulus Plan
President-elect Barack Obama today proposed an economic recovery act that spends billions of dollars to make public buildings energy-efficient, to rebuild the nation's crumbling highways, to renovate aging school buildings, to extend high-speed Internet to underserved areas and to modernize hospitals. Obama's plan, announced in the weekly Democratic radio address and online video, came with no price tag and few details.
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/12/06/obama_offers_highlights_of_his.html?hpid=topnews

-Blackwater Guards Indicted In Deadly Baghdad Shooting
5 Face Trial Over Incident That Killed 17 Civilians, Sources Say
Five Blackwater Worldwide Security guards have been charged in a September 2007 shooting that left 17 Iraqi civilians dead and raised questions about the U.S. government's use of security contractors in combat zones, according to two sources familiar with the case.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/05/AR2008120500309.html?hpid=moreheadlines

-Justices to Decide Legality of Indefinite Detention
Case of Qatari National, Held Without Formal Charges, Is Test of Executive Power
The Supreme Court said yesterday it will decide whether the president may order the indefinite detention of suspects living lawfully in the United States, one of the broadest claims of executive power the Bush administration has asserted in the nation's anti-terrorism efforts.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/05/AR2008120501884.html?hpid=sec-nation

-Panama: Canal open to Russian warships
PANAMA CITY, Panama -- Panama said its canal is open to all, including a Russian warship sailing through the transoceanic waterway on Friday. The destroyer Admiral Chabanenko is the first Soviet or Russian military ship to traverse the 50-mile (80-kilometer) waterway since World War II.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/05/AR2008120501876.html?hpid=sec-world


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

-300,000 Apply for 3,300 Obama Jobs
Brenda Benton, a veteran media relations employee with the Los Angeles Police Department, is now part of a record-breaking political phenomenon. Ms. Benton was so thrilled with the election of Barack Obama as president that she has become one of about 300,000 people who have, so far, put themselves forward for posts in the new administration. At the equivalent time in the George W. Bush transition eight years ago, with his election still in dispute, there were about 44,000 applicants, according to Clay Johnson, who led the Bush transition effort. Mr. Johnson said the final figure was about 90,000.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/06/us/politics/06seek.html?hp

-Companies with business with Iran may get none in Florida
State Sen. Ted Deutch has a vision where Florida puts a stop to Iran's nuclear ambitions. His weapon: Public opinion. His ammunition: a $125-million tank farm being built in Port Canaveral by one of the world's largest oil traders.
http://www.tampabay.com/news/business/energy/article927912.ece

-White House, Democrats reach deal on $15 billion auto aid
Democratic leaders and the White House reached a deal to provide billions of dollars in relief to the ailing U.S. auto industry, a senior congressional aide told Reuters on Friday. The package, which Democratic leaders hope to win passage of next week and send to President George W. Bush, totals between $15 billion and $17 billion, the aide said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/05/AR2008120503479.html

-Op-Ed Contributor: The Real Bill Ayers
IN the recently concluded presidential race, I was unwillingly thrust upon the stage and asked to play a role in a profoundly dishonest drama. I refused, and here's why. Unable to challenge the content of Barack Obama's campaign, his opponents invented a narrative about a young politician who emerged from nowhere, a man of charm, intelligence and skill, but with an exotic background and a strange name. The refrain was a question: "What do we really know about this man?"
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/06/opinion/06ayers.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1228540255-1Z0M/9+PBvTJDTkrm/kHRA

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