NATIONAL & WORLD NEWS - February 17, 2009

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

-Cruise Issue | The Green Traveler
Cruise Lines Urged to Shrink Their Footprints
By JENNIFER CONLIN
MOVING gently through pristine blue waters, floating past whales and glaciers, fjords and islands, it is easy to see why travelers might think a vacation on a cruise ship is more eco-friendly than jetting through the earth's atmosphere on a plane.
http://travel.nytimes.com/2009/02/15/travel/15green.html?scp=6&sq=GAY&st=cse

-Pakistan Agrees to Islamic Law in Violent Region
By ISMAIL KHAN and JANE PERLEZ
PESHAWAR, Pakistan - Pakistani authorities said Monday that they had accepted a deal to allow a legal system compatible with the Islamic legal code in the violent Swat region as part of a truce with Taliban militants who have virtually annexed the area, less than 100 miles from the capital.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/17/world/asia/17pstan.html?hp

-Taliban Threats in Pakistan Are Heard a World Away
By KIRK SEMPLE
Last June, Bakht Bilind Khan, who was living in the Bronx and working at a fast-food restaurant, returned to his village in the volatile Swat Valley of northern Pakistan to visit his wife and seven children for the first time in three years. But during a dinner celebration with his family, his homecoming suddenly turned dark: Several heavily armed Taliban fighters wearing masks appeared at the door of their house, accused Mr. Khan of being an American spy and kidnapped him.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/17/nyregion/17swat.html?hp

-Sheriff Says Phelps Won't Be Charged
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
A South Carolina sheriff said Monday he was not going to charge swimmer Michael Phelps after a photo of the 14-time gold medalist showed him smoking from a marijuana pipe.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/02/16/sports/AP-SWM-Phelps-Marijuana.html?hp

-U.S. to Compare Medical Treatments
By ROBERT PEAR
The $787 billion economic stimulus bill approved by Congress will, for the first time, provide substantial amounts of money for the federal government to compare the effectiveness of different treatments for the same illness.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/16/health/policy/16health.html

-Op-Ed Columnist: Obama Riding the Wave
By BOB HERBERT
Listening to President Obama, I was struck by how well he understands that most voters are not driven by ideology and are not searching for politically orthodox leadership. Most want leaders who speak to their needs - especially in this time of economic crisis - and a government that works.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/17/opinion/17herbert.html?ref=opinion

-Editorial: 'We'll Take It'
This nation's founders rebelled against taxation without representation, but residents of Washington are still without a meaningful voice in Congress. A bill to give the District of Columbia a voting member in the House of Representatives has taken an important step forward, and it could become law this year. The bill is not ideal, but it would redress a longstanding injustice. Congress should pass it.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/17/opinion/17tue2.html?ref=opinion

-A Promising Treatment for Athletes, in Blood
By ALAN SCHWARZ
Two of the Pittsburgh Steelers' biggest stars, Hines Ward and Troy Polamalu, used their own blood in an innovative injury treatment before winning the Super Bowl. At least one major league pitcher, about 20 professional soccer players and perhaps hundreds of recreational athletes have also undergone the procedure, commonly called platelet-rich plasma therapy.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/17/sports/17blood.html?hp

-Boycott by Science Group Over Louisiana Law Seen as Door to Teaching
Creationism
By ADAM NOSSITER
A leading scientific group has announced its intention to boycott Louisiana because of a new state law that could open the door to teaching creationism in the public schools.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/17/us/17boycott.html

-Op-Ed Columnist: Decade at Bernie's
By PAUL KRUGMAN
By now everyone knows the sad tale of Bernard Madoff's duped investors. They looked at their statements and thought they were rich. But then, one day, they discovered to their horror that their supposed wealth was a figment of someone else's imagination.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/16/opinion/16krugman.html?ref=opinion

-Op-Ed Columnist: The Magic Mountain
By ROGER COHEN
Tehran: The Alborz Mountains soar above the north side of the megalopolis that is the Iranian capital, their snowy peaks arousing dreams of evasion in people caught by the city's bottlenecks. One day I could resist them no longer.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/16/opinion/16cohen.html?ref=opinion

-Editorial | Editorial Notebook
Is the Supreme Court About to Kill Off the Exclusionary Rule?
By ADAM COHEN
In 1957, the Cleveland police showed up at Dollree Mapp's home looking for a bombing suspect. Ms. Mapp would not let them in without a search warrant, but they entered anyway. The police did not find the bomber, but they came across a trunk containing "lewd and lascivious" books and pictures.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/16/opinion/16mon4.html?ref=opinion


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

-Israel's Existential Dilemma
by Fareed Zakaria
Even before a new coalition could emerge, Israel's latest election was historic. It marked the collapse of Labor, the party that can plausibly claim to have founded Israel and produced its most celebrated prime ministers, from David Ben-Gurion (as head of Labor's predecessor, Mapai), through Golda Meir to Yitzhak Rabin. The last vestige of old Labor is Shimon Peres, who--with fitting irony--is the country's president only because he quit the party. Israel's political spectrum is now dominated by three right-wing groups: Likud, Kadima (the Likud offshoot founded by Ariel Sharon) and Yisrael Beytenu, a party of Russian immigrants. But while most commentators focus on the future of the peace process and the two-state solution, a deeper and more existential question is growing within the heart of Israel.
http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/postglobal/fareed_zakaria/2009/02/israels_existential_dilemma.html

-4 Cases Illustrate Guantanamo Quandaries
Administration Must Decide Fate of Often-Flawed Proceedings, Often-Dangerous Prisoners
By Peter Finn
In their summary of evidence against Mohammed Sulaymon Barre, a Somali detained at Guantanamo Bay, military investigators allege that he spent several years at Osama bin Laden's compound in Sudan. But other military documents place him in Pakistan during the same period.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/15/AR2009021501955.html?hpid=moreheadlines

-Burris insists feds didn't request new affidavit
By DON BABWIN
Sen. Roland Burris insisted Monday that a newly released affidavit outlining contacts with ousted Gov. Rod Blagojevich's brother and other advisers was voluntary and not the result of contact from federal agents investigating the former governor.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/16/AR2009021600920.html?hpid=moreheadlines

-Austria: 'Katrina' pastor giving up promotion
By ERIC WILLEMSEN
VIENNA -- A pastor who created a controversy by suggesting that God punished New Orleans with Hurricane Katrina because of the city's sins said Sunday he will ask the pope to rescind his promotion.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/15/AR2009021500628.html?hpid=sec-religion

-Protectionism Anew
By Anne Applebaum
Some think the New Deal rescued America from economic crisis in the 1930s. Others argue the opposite. But whatever their ideology, and whatever their credentials, most of the pundits, historians and economists who debate the Great Depression agree about one thing: Whatever may have caused the crisis, protectionism, trade barriers and, yes, the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act, helped to ensure that it lasted as long as it did. So uncontroversial is this view that it is virtually U.S. government policy. "To this day," intones a State Department Web site, "the phrase 'Smoot-Hawley' remains a watchword for the perils of protectionism."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/16/AR2009021601099.html

-Partisan Realities
By Richard Cohen
We might as well start with Judd Gregg because, in a way, he is at the heart of the problem. The first time I met him was in New Hampshire, during the 2000 Republican primary, when he came into the kitchen of a high school to tell me and another journalist that what we had just heard George W. Bush say on the stump he did not actually say. This man, I thought, has the heart of a wingman.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/16/AR2009021601104.html

-A Truth Commission?
The Danger in Democrats' Rush to Investigate
By David B. Rivkin Jr. and Lee A. Casey
A growing chorus of critics is demanding the creation of a special commission to "investigate" the Bush administration's alleged abuses of power, especially prosecution of the war on terrorism. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy called for a "truth commission" last week, and House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers Jr. has introduced legislation to establish a National Commission on Presidential War Powers and Civil Liberties.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/16/AR2009021601100.html

-President of Everything
By Eugene Robinson
This is a presidency on steroids. Barack Obama's executive actions alone would be enough for any new administration's first month: decreeing an end to torture and the Guantanamo prison, extending health insurance to more children, reversing Bush-era policies on family planning. That the White House also managed to push through Congress a spending bill of unprecedented size and scope -- designed both to provide an economic stimulus and reorder the nation's priorities -- is little short of astonishing.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/16/AR2009021601102.html?hpid=opinionsbox1

-Judges: Torture, Abuses Undermine Values in U.S., U.K.
By Kevin Sullivan
LONDON, Feb. 17 -- An international group of judges and lawyers is warning that systemic torture and other abuses in the global "war on terror" have "undermined cherished values" of civil rights in the United States, Britain and other nations.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/17/AR2009021700506.html?hpid=moreheadlines

-Senators Seek Ethics Findings
Investigation Focuses on Opinions Issued in Bush Administration on Torture
By Carrie Johnson
Two Senate Democrats urged the Justice Department yesterday to quickly release its findings of an ethics investigation into legal opinions under President George W. Bush that paved the way for waterboarding prisoners and other harsh interrogation practices.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/16/AR2009021601198.html?hpid=moreheadlines


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

-Nuclear Submarines Collide
France, U.K. Report No Serious Damage in Atlantic Incident
By ALISTAIR MACDONALD in London and DAVID GAUTHIER-VILLARS in Paris
Two nuclear submarines -- one French and one British -- collided during a routine patrol in the depths of the Atlantic Ocean earlier this month, France and the U.K. said Monday. The freak collision raised concern among military experts and antinuclear campaigners.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123479486131792981.html

-Auto Maker Bankruptcy Looms
GM, Chrysler Plans Due Today; U.S. Taps Car Adviser Known for Extracting Concessions
By JOHN D. STOLL and MONICA LANGLEY
Troubled U.S. auto makers and union representatives dug in late Monday for all-night cost-cutting negotiations as the government advanced its point person on auto restructuring, a former investment banker with a record for demanding harsh concessions from manufacturers, unions and investors alike.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123483084725295657.html

-EU Court Ruling Could See Europe Admit More Asylum Seekers
By CHARLES FORELLE
BRUSSELS -- Refugees seeking asylum in the European Union do not have to demonstrate that they are specifically targeted for harm if there is widespread and indiscriminate violence in their home countries, Europe's highest court ruled Tuesday after reviewing the case of two Iraqi nationals who had fled the war in their country.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123486915097099021.html

-Christians on Left, Right Push Plan to Aid the Poor
By STEPHANIE SIMON
More than a dozen Christian leaders from across the political spectrum --
including members of both the Bush and Obama administrations -- will come together Tuesday to promote a grab bag of proposals designed to help the poor at a time of rising unemployment.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123482468966794861.html

-Barack of Afpakia
The left is already doubting Obama's Afghan surge.
The regents are on the ground and commanders are crafting new battle plans: resident Obama is girding for a war surge in Afghanistan. Let's hope he's willing to see it through when his most stalwart supporters start to doubt the effort and rue the cost.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123482632399795061.html


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

-Obama poised to sign stimulus into law
By BEN FELLER
President Barack Obama is poised to sign into law the most sweeping economic package in decades, a rescue plan designed to create millions of jobs, spur consumer spending and revive the nation's outlook.
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics/AP/story/907385.html

-FINANCIAL CRISIS: Geithner still groping for right message
BY EUGENE ROBINSON
eugenerobinson@washpost.com
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner will get much better at making his case to Congress and the American people. I'm confident in that prediction because after watching his debut last week, I don't see how he could get much worse.
http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/other-views/story/906148.html

-Discrimination hurts -- more so in hospitals
By LEONARD PITTS JR.
lpitts@miamiherald.com
Your wife is dying. One moment everything was fine. You were in your stateroom on the cruise ship -- it was to be an anniversary cruise -- unpacking your things. The kids were in the adjoining stateroom playing with your wife. Suddenly, they banged on the door crying that mom was hurt.
http://www.miamiherald.com/living/columnists/leonard-pitts/story/903192.html

-Republicans seen as taking a risk in opposing Obama on economy
By DAVID LIGHTMAN
The Republican Party is taking a big risk by looking like the party of "no" at a time when Americans like their new president and badly want the economy fixed.
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics/AP/story/906916.html


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

-Axelrod Gives Cheney A Verbal Bashing
Posted by Daniel Farber
Senior Obama advisor David Axelrod landed some verbal blows on Dick Cheney today over the former Vice President's criticisms of the Obama administration on national security, as well as Cheney's own record in that regard.
http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2009/02/15/politics/politicalhotsheet/entry4803788.shtml


-Dems Fed Up With McCain: "Angry Old Defeated Candidate"
Democrats are growing increasingly frustrated with the brash political attacks Sen. John McCain has launched against Barack Obama in the weeks since the new president took office. No one expected the Arizona Republican to be a legislative ally for this administration. But it was widely assumed that Obama's overtures to McCain in the weeks after the election would dull some of the hard feelings between the two. Now, they are realizing, it has not.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/02/15/dems-growing-angry-with-m_n_167062.html


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