Feature

Daunting Challenges Await at Bush's Last G-8 Summit

by: Malcolm Foster, The Associated Press

Group of Eight Protest in Japan
Thousands of protesters gathered in Sapporo, Japan to voice opposition to G-8 rich nation policies. (Photo: AFP / Getty Images)

    Sapporo, Japan - Between surging oil prices, food inflation and a credit crunch that's depressed global growth, leaders from the Group of Eight economic powers face the gravest combination of economic woes in at least a decade when they gather next week.     The outlook has darkened dramatically since last year's summit in Germany, when the leaders declared the global economy was in "good condition" and oil cost $70 a barrel - which seemed high at the time. »

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Wall-E for President

by: Frank Rich, The New York Times

    So much for a July Fourth week spent in idyllic celebration of our country's birthday. This year's festivities were marked instead by a debate - childish, not constitutional - over who is and isn't patriotic. The fireworks were sparked by a verbally maladroit retired general, fueled by two increasingly fatuous presidential campaigns, and heated to a boil by a 24/7 news culture that inflates any passing tit for tat into a war of the worlds.

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Military dead coming home.

Cause for Alarm

by: Bob Herbert, The New York Times

    Beaches, barbecues and flags as big as baseball fields. Fireworks as loud as thunder lighting the nighttime sky. Hot fun, as Sly & the Family Stone would say, in the summertime.

    Friday was the 232nd anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence. Celebrations were ubiquitous. HBO offered a marathon telecast of its John Adams series. Bands of wildly varying quality, from one coast to the other, let loose with "The Star-Spangled Banner," "America the Beautiful" and "The Stars and Stripes Forever." »

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