NATIONAL & WORLD NEWS - February 07, 2009

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

-Senators Reach Accord on Stimulus Plan as Jobs Vanish
By CARL HULSE and DAVID M. HERSZENHORN
Senate Democrats reached an agreement with Republican moderates on Friday to pare a huge economic recovery measure, clearing the way for approval of a package that President Obama said was urgently needed in light of mounting job losses.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/07/us/politics/07stimulus.html?hp

-Editorial: Disappearing Jobs
It was impossible to argue with President Obama on Friday when he said that the dismal new jobs report - the largest loss in 13 consecutive months of decline - made it all the more urgent for Congress to pass the economic stimulus and recovery package.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/07/opinion/07sat1.html?ref=opinion

-Op-Ed Columnist: Tough Times at Obama Inc.
By GAIL COLLINS
I know it's been a tough week, little Obamaites. You've been feeling ... unstimulated.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/07/opinion/07collins.html?ref=opinion

-Op-Ed Columnist: Playing With Fire
By BOB HERBERT
It was good to see the president, ordinarily so cool, so accommodating, exhibiting some real fire the other night. It seems to have done some good. With the economy in deep, deep trouble, and Americans suffering by the tens of millions, the Republicans spent much of the week doing their same-old, bad-faith Neanderthal two-step: trying their best to derail the economic stimulus package working its difficult way through Congress
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/07/opinion/07herbert.html?ref=opinion

-Op-Ed Columnist: Watch the Tone in Washington
By CHARLES M. BLOW
It took just two weeks for Washington's Kumbaya experiment in bipartisan civility to explode in turgid rants, finger-pointing and re-entrenchment.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/07/opinion/07blow2.html?ref=opinion

-Indecision Reigns as Israelis Get Ready to Vote
By ISABEL KERSHNER
JERUSALEM - As the Israelis trudge once again to the polling stations on Tuesday to elect a new government for the fifth time in a decade, many of them may still be asking themselves whom they are going to vote for, and why.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/07/world/middleeast/07israel.html?hp

-Pakistan Frees Nuclear Dealer in Snub to U.S.
By SALMAN MASOOD and DAVID E. SANGER
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - A Pakistani court freed one of the most successful nuclear proliferators in history, Abdul Qadeer Khan, from house arrest on Friday, lifting the restrictions imposed on him since 2004 when he publicly confessed to running an illicit nuclear network.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/07/world/asia/07khan.html?hp

-U.S. Can Ship Afghan Aid Through Russia, Kremlin Says
By ELLEN BARRY
MOSCOW - Russia's foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, said Friday that Russia had fast-tracked approval of a plan to allow the United States military to ship nonlethal equipment across Russian territory to Afghanistan.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/07/world/europe/07russia.html

-Patient Money: Strategies for Saving on Prescription Drugs
By LESLEY ALDERMAN
Drugs have never been so expensive - or so cheap. News reports and anecdotal evidence indicate that the recession is prompting many people to skimp on prescription drugs, putting their health at risk now and setting them up for higher medical expenses in the long term. So now is a good time to take a hard look at what you spend on prescriptions and figure out how you can make that money go farther.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/07/health/06patient.html

-Not Everyone Is Cheering as Wi-Fi Takes to the Air
By MICHELINE MAYNARD
Published: February 6, 2009
For all the annoyance of being crammed into an aluminum tube at 35,000 feet with a bunch of strangers, air travel has offered one benefit: the ability to tell bosses and colleagues, "I'll be on a flight, so you won't be able to reach me."
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/07/business/07plane.html?hp


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

-Two Sides of a Debate
Bipartisanship produced Friday's stimulus deal -- but Washington hasn't yet changed. THE $780 BILLION stimulus package deal reached by a bipartisan group of senators and the White House Friday was the culmination of a frenzied week that reflected two strains of politics. One embraced President Obama's attempt to rise above the partisan squabbles that too often have paralyzed Washington. Another made it clear that the old ways will die hard.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/06/AR2009020603236.html

-Mr. Cheney's Blind Spot
The former vice president still doesn't recognize the damage done by his terrorism policies. "THE UNITED States needs to be not so much loved as it needs to be respected." So declared former vice president Dick Cheney in an interview this week with Politico. Mr. Cheney is right -- which is why he should be apologizing rather than defending the extreme Bush administration policies on detention and interrogation that he championed.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/06/AR2009020603175.html

-The Death of 'Rational Man'
By David Ignatius
What allowed some people to see the financial crash coming while so many others missed its gathering force? I put that question recently to Nouriel Roubini, who has come to be known as "Dr. Doom" because of his insistent warnings starting in 2006 that we were heading into a global firestorm.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/06/AR2009020602742.html

-The GOP Faces the Blue Wall
By David S. Broder
It was not all that long ago that political reporters were writing about "the Republican lock" on the White House. From 1972 to 1988, from Richard Nixon's reelection through George H.W. Bush's victory over Michael Dukakis, 24 states supported the GOP nominee each time.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/06/AR2009020602741.html

-A Way To Revive Spending
By Dan Newman
Last weekend, I stood outside the shuttered doors of a favorite local restaurant. As a small-business owner myself, I can only imagine how hard it was for those people to hang that out-of-business sign. I can also imagine the owners of that business sharing my opinion on what America needs most, and that surely isn't tax cuts.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/06/AR2009020603195.html

-The Promise In Iraq's Rebirth
By Samir Sumaida'ie
When the United States went into Iraq in 2003, Americans had a very limited understanding of the country. Political pundits tended to reduce Iraq to neat categories: an oppressed Shiite majority; a Sunni minority linked to Saddam Hussein's regime; and the Kurds, who had no interest in remaining in Iraq. The strife between these supposedly monolithic communities was often portrayed as permanent and violent.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/06/AR2009020602748.html

-Chrysler Chief Could Be First Test of Pay Limits
Firm Says It Would Comply to Secure More Aid
By David Cho and Kendra Marr
The first test case of the Obama administration's tougher executive compensation standards may very well be the man who a few years ago was a symbol of corporate excess: Robert L. Nardelli.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/06/AR2009020603813.html?hpid=topnews

-Haitian President Appeals for Emergency Aid
By Glenn Kessler
Washington Post Staff Writer
Haitian President René Préval said yesterday that his impoverished country is in desperate need of economic assistance and is seeking as much as $100 million to fill a budget gap that he said could send Haiti back into anarchy.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/06/AR2009020603309.html?hpid=sec-world

-First US face transplant patient leaves hospital
By MARILYNN MARCHIONE
The Associated Press
She can eat pizza. And hamburgers. She can smell perfume, drink coffee from a cup, and purse her lips as if to blow a kiss. Except that one lip is hers, and the other is from a dead woman. She is the nation's first face transplant patient, and on Thursday night, she went home from a Cleveland hospital. "I'm happy about myself," she told her doctors.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/06/AR2009020602138.html?hpid=sec-health


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Wall Street Journal
http://online.wsj.com/public/us
Go to the links for the following articles:

-The Senate Stimulus Bill - PDF
http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/stimbil2009.pdf

-Class Warfare: Railing Against the Rich: A Great American Tradition
Efforts to limit pay of the wealthiest gained traction in the 1930s; 'economic royalists'
By ALAN BRINKLEY
The Great Depression of the 1930s created hardship and suffering among millions of Americans. It also created populist resentment of elites. Among the many signs of this anger was the astonishing popularity of Huey P. Long, governor of Louisiana and then U.S. senator, a figure so dominant in his own state that his enemies called him a dictator. But to the ordinary people of Louisiana -- and later to millions of ordinary people across the U.S. -- Mr. Long was a heroic figure, fighting for the "common man" and challenging the right of elites to monopolize power and wealth.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123396621006159013.html

-The Jack Bauer Exception - II
As CIA director, would Leon Panetta object to aggressive interrogation?
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123396474404658733.html

-Wall Street Bonuses Are an Outrage
The public sees a self-serving system for what it is. Just a mere $18.4 billion in Wall Street bonuses, and suddenly the entire country is like Kansas in the 1890s, raising hell instead of corn, screaming for revenge on money power that has done us so wrong while rewarding itself so generously.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123371071061546079.html

-How Europe's Companies Are Feeding Iran's Bomb
By BENJAMIN WEINTHAL
Berlin
While the U.S. has ratcheted up its efforts to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear arms, the Islamic Republic is reaping a windfall from European companies. These firms' deals aid a regime that is bent on developing nuclear weapons and which financially supports the terror organizations Hamas and Hezbollah.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123379548035950207.html


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

-Anti-Semitic attacks on rise, Anti-Defamation League says
By James D. Davis | Religion Editor
Over the last six weeks, Jews have been beaten, synagogues have been burned and numerous signs, placards and newspaper articles have equated Jews with Nazis, one of the nation's top bigot-fighters said Friday.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/palmbeach/sfl-flpadl0207pnfeb07,0,5306343.story

-Madoff clients emerge in 162-page list
Baseball great Sandy Koufax, developer Larry Silverstein among his fraud victims
Larry Neumeister | The Associated Press
Hall of Fame pitcher Sandy Koufax. Broadcaster Larry King. World Trade Center developer Larry Silverstein.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/nationworld/orl-apmadoff0609feb06,0,2285995.story


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

-More Israelis leaning to right in vote choice
Tiring of moderates, many Israelis appear to be drifting to the far right and an 'iron fist' approach in national elections coming up next week.
http://www.miamiherald.com/578/story/892381.html

-A peek at the unemployment picture across the country, by the numbers
The information on age and college education is just a sample of the wealth of information, beyond the headline unemployment rate, that shows up in the Labor Department's monthly employment report. Here are some more details about who is included in the ranks of the jobless, by the numbers.
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/more-info/story/892418.html


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

-GOP - Michael Steele Will Not Save Your Party
Michael Steele accurately diagnosed the GOP's troubles as an "identity crisis." But it is difficult to see how Steele solves that problem for the party.
http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=michael_steele_will_not_save_your_party

-Slideshow: Jacketless Presidents in the Oval Office
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/02/05/bush-jacketless-in-oval-o_n_164513.html

-Slideshow:Inside Gitmo [Click on picutures to change]
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21135124/displaymode/1107/s/2/

-Alaska Senate finds Sarah Palin's husband, aides in contempt
Todd Palin and nine of the governor's employees ignored subpoenas to testify in an investigation. The Senate said it wouldn't seek punishment. They eventually gave written statements.
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-na-palin-trooper7-2009feb07,0,3232085.story


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