NATIONAL & WORLD DIGEST - January 02, 2009

**IF YOU CAN'T ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE, CONTACT US AT rays.list@comcast.net and we'll be happy to send the full article.


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

-Bigger Than Bush
PAUL KRUGMAN
Forty years ago the G.O.P. decided, in effect, to make itself the party of racial backlash. And everything that has happened in recent years is a consequence of that decision.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/02/opinion/02krugman.html?_r=1&ref=opinion

-Iran: The Woman the Mullahs Fear
We urge the United States, Europe and other powers to keep pressure on Iran to ensure that human rights activist Shirin Ebadi remains free to do her essential work.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/02/opinion/02fri2.html?ref=opinion

-The Next World Order
By GURCHARAN DAS
Both the Chinese and the Indians are convinced that their prosperity will only increase. In China it will be induced by the state; in India, it may well happen despite the state.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/02/opinion/02das.html?ref=opinion


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

-Cuba: Fifty Years of Failure
Eugene Robinson
It is time to bring five decades of counterproductive Cuba policy to a definitive end.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/01/AR2009010101784.html

-Moral Clarity in Gaza
Charles Krauthammer
Some geopolitical conflicts are morally complicated. Not the Israel-Gaza war. Late Saturday, thousands of Gazans received Arabic-language cell-phone messages from the Israeli military, urging them to leave homes where militants might have stashed weapons. {...} For Hamas, the only thing more prized than dead Jews are dead Palestinians.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/01/AR2009010101780.html

-Folding Blago's Big Top
By E. J. Dionne Jr.
Political circuses just don't get any better than this -- unless you happen to care about a new administration taking power in the midst of national and international catastrophes.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/01/AR2009010101779.html

-A Clue to Ancient Extinction?
Discovery suggests a comet strike 13,000 years ago caused Earth to revert to glacial conditions.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/01/AR2009010101490.html?hpid=topnews


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

-Gas tax is best way to end U.S. addiction
How many times do we have to see this play before we admit that it always ends the same way? Gasoline prices go up, pressure rises for more fuel-efficient cars, then gasoline prices fall and the pressure for low-mileage vehicles vanishes, consumers stop buying those cars, the oil producers celebrate, we remain addicted to oil and prices gradually go up again, petro-dictators get rich, we lose.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/opinion/sfl-01friedmansbjan01,0,16374.story


=
Newsweek
http://www.newsweek.com/
-The Top of the Class
The complete list of the 1,300 top U.S. high schools in U.S. Search by school, city, or state.
http://www.newsweek.com/id/39380/?q=2008/rank/1/

-The Public Elites
Some schools didn't make our list because their students are too good. The best of the best.
http://www.newsweek.com/id/137421/page/1


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

-Obama sparks hope in young men
Teen says president-elect will do good things for young black males.
By Jessie-Lynne Kerr
Brian Baham hopes the election of Barack Obama will set an example for young black males that they can "survive, strive and succeed in life." Cameron Fowler believes the next president can help improve the plight of young black males "because he came from a place where he didn't have everything."
http://www.jacksonville.com/news/metro/2009-01-02/obama_sparks_hope_in_young_men

-2009 brings hard choices over the future of capitalism
Either a large part of humankind has to be excluded from the happy benefits of growth or our way of life has to change
Timothy Garton Ash
Happy new year? You must be joking. 2009 will begin with a wail, and then get worse. Millions of people have already been put out of work, across the world, by this first truly globalised crisis of capitalism. Tens of millions more will be made jobless soon. Those of us lucky enough still to have work will feel poorer and less secure. To celebrate his Nobel prize in economics, Paul Krugman promises us months of "economic hell". Thank you, Paul, and a happy new year to you too.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jan/01/economics-credit-crunch-recession

-A Trillion Dollar Recovery
posted by Katrina vanden Heuvel
Poverty is on the rise, record numbers of people are relying on food stamps and we've seen no relief for the foreclosure crisis. There are increasing rates of child abuse and domestic violence linked to this recession. State governments don't have financial resources to cope at the exact moment when those resources are most needed. Nineteen states and the District of Columbia have lowered Medicaid payments or eliminated people from eligibility. The senior economist of the International Monetary Fund recently warned of another Great Depression
http://www.thenation.com/blogs/edcut/392672/a_trillion_dollar_recovery?rel=hp_picks

-Another brutal year for liberty
By Glenn Greenwald
The good news is that it's clear what the Obama administration must do to end the decade-long war on the Constitution.
http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2009/01/01/civil_liberties/

-GOP plans to crash economy
Libby Spencer
Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell announced on Monday that he intends to block President Obama's stimulus bill, before he's seen it. He said, "As of right now, Americans are left with more questions than answers about this unprecedented government spending, and I believe the taxpayers deserve to know a lot more about where it will be spent before we consider passing it."
http://info.detnews.com/redesign/blogs/politicsblog/index.cfm?blogid=13921


=

[Send your comments about articles to Rays.List@Comcast.net]
#####