News aggregator

Will Bunch writes for The Philadelphia Daily News: "President Bush went on foreign soil today, and committed what I consider an act of political treason: Comparing the candidate of the US opposition party to appeasers of Nazi Germany - in the very nation that was carved out from the horrific calamity of the Holocaust. Bush's bizarre and beyond-appropriate detour into American presidential politics took place in the middle of what should have been an occasion for joy: a speech to Israeli's Knesset to honor that nation's 60th birthday."

Adam Liptak reports for The New York Times, "Same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marry, the California Supreme Court ruled Thursday. The court's 4-to-3 decision, striking down two state laws that had limited marriages to unions between a man and a woman, will make California only the second state, after Massachusetts, to allow same-sex marriages."

Stephane Amar for La Presse explains the paradox of the "Israeli economic miracle": "Israel is 60 years old. In the space of a few decades, the country has been able to haul itself up to join the ranks of the world's great economic powers, at the price of repudiating the values of equality and sharing that the first Zionists extolled."

Leonard Doyle, for The Independent UK, reports: "The United States declared the polar bear a threatened species yesterday, saying the dramatic reduction in sea ice caused by global warming has put it in imminent danger of extinction."

Ron Jacobs writes for Z Net, "Recently, more than 100 workers in Pascagoula, Mississippi, walked off the job at a Mississippi shipyard last week to protest conditions similar to slavery. Also in Mississippi, beginning July 1st, 2008, it will become a felony for an undocumented worker to hold a job."

Kristen Wyatt reports for The Associated Press, "Starting next year across the country, rape victims too afraid or too ashamed to go to police can undergo an emergency-room forensic rape exam, and the evidence gathered will be kept on file in a sealed envelope in case they decide to press charges."

Robert Pear writes for The New York Times: "Nursing home inspectors routinely overlook or minimize problems that pose a serious, immediate threat to patients, Congressional investigators say in a new report."

Michael Melia, reporting for The Associated Press, writes: "A Pentagon official said Wednesday that he will not resign as legal advisor to war-crimes tribunals at Guantanamo, despite his removal from the trial of Osama bin Laden's driver because of a lack of impartiality."

Simon Montlake, reporting for The Christian Science Monitor, writes: "A series of attacks in the Indian city may have been intended to incite religious fury between Hindus and Muslims. Some Indian officials suspect terrorist groups from Pakistan and Bangladesh."

Mary Kane, writing for The Washington Independent, writes: "A recent policy by the mortgage industry that would charge higher fees for loans to borrowers in certain zip codes is behind the concerns. It has quickly led to charges of redlining and violations of fair housing laws. This has reignited old battles over access to credit -- fights that housing advocates thought they had settled years earlier."

Onnesha Roychoudhuri, reporting for AlterNet, writes: "As both obesity and hunger are on the rise, a new book shows why we shouldn't feel guilty about our food choices but angry with a corrupt food system."

Sara Robinson, writing for The Campaign for America's Future, says: "One of the grandest -- and most frustrating -- things about carrying on the great democratic conversation via blog is finding out how many of your fellow citizens (including many who are nominally on your side) turn out to be looking at the world from a completely different set of assumptions than you are."

Keith Olbermann delivers a special comment on "MSNBC Countdown," addressing George Bush's policies and rhetoric.

Christopher Kuttruff, of Truthout: "Last week, lawmakers proposed legislation on network neutrality that would open up the possibility for antitrust lawsuits against companies that violate the bill's regulations. The bill has fueled the ongoing debate about the implications of network regulation. On Thursday, May 8, House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers (D-Michigan) and Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-California) introduced the 'Internet Freedom and Nondiscrimination Act of 2008' (H.R. 5994) which seeks to prevent anti-competitive and discriminatory activity by broadband Internet service providers."

Tony Perry, of The Los Angeles Times: "Blackwater Worldwide, the global security firm whose conduct in Iraq has drawn criticism, is again trying to open a training facility in the face of local opposition. In March, the firm dropped plans to build a 220-acre training camp in rural Potrero, about 45 miles east of downtown San Diego. A coalition of rural property owners, environmentalists and antiwar activists opposed its effort to build a 'combat town.'"

Adam Nagourney and Carl Hulse, of The New York Times: "The Republican defeat in a special Congressional contest in Mississippi sent waves of apprehension across an already troubled party Wednesday, with some senior Republicans urging Congressional candidates to distance themselves from President Bush to head off what could be heavy losses in the fall. The victory by Travis Childers, a conservative Democrat elected in a once-steadfast Republican district on Tuesday, was the third defeat of a Republican in a special Congressional race this year."

Greg Miller, of The Los Angeles Times: "As head of analysis for all US spy agencies, Thomas Fingar was making final edits last summer on a long-awaited intelligence report on Iran. The draft concluded that Tehran was still pursuing a nuclear bomb, a finding that echoed previous assessments and would have bolstered Bush administration hawks. Then, just weeks before the report was to be delivered to the White House, new intelligence surfaced indicating that Tehran's nuclear weapons work had stopped."

David Ignatius, of The Washington Post: "Watching the news from Lebanon, it's poignant to read the title of a new memoir by Jordan's former foreign minister, Marwan Muasher, 'The Arab Center: The Promise of Moderation.' The daily headlines tell us that centrist Arabs such as Muasher are becoming an endangered species. The center is under siege in Lebanon and across the Middle East as the region becomes more polarized between Iranian-backed extremists and US-backed forces."

Michael Doyle, of McClatchy Newspapers: "The House on Wednesday emphatically approved a massive five-year farm bill by a veto-proof margin, setting up President Bush for a major political embarrassment. Brushing off Bush's opposition, many Republicans joined a majority of Democrats in approving the farm bill 318-106. This is well over the two-thirds vote needed to override Bush's promised veto."

Robert Scheer, of Truthdig: "Ah, yes, those torture confessions have proved so useful. That, at least, was the claim of our president in justifying one of the most egregious assaults ever on this nation's commitment to the rule of law. But now comes news that charges have been dropped against the so-called Sept. 11 attacks' 20th hijacker, one of dozens so identified, because the 'evidence' he supplied under torture and later recanted is not credible enough to go to trial. That fact, of course, will not compel President Bush to cut the tortured prisoner loose."