This page features brief excerpts of stories published by the mainstream
media and, less frequently, blogs, alternative media, and even obviously
biased sources. The excerpts are taken directly from the websites cited in
each source note. Quotation marks are not used.
Source: NYT
January 28, 2008
In the countdown to President Bush’s final State of the Union address, there are strong signals that it will be reminiscent in some ways of the speech given by his father 16 years ago.
President Bush is certain to focus on the economy on Monday night, reiterating his faith in Americans’ enterprise and work ethic, arguing for a short-term shot in the arm and repeating his call for low taxes as a permanent way of life. Mr. Bush believes deeply in Americans’ “keeping more of their hard
Source: AP
January 27, 2008
BLITAR, Indonesia - Hiding out in the dense, humid jungle, Markus Talam watched Indonesian soldiers herd manacled prisoners from trucks, line them up and mow them down with round after round of automatic weapons fire.
It was 1968, and the killings were part of a final offensive by forces under Gen. Suharto to wipe out the communist party and secure his position as leader of Indonesia, now the world's most populous Muslim nation.
"They gunned them down and dumped th
Source: Boing Boing
January 27, 2008
The Canadian National Post looks on with mild horror as American linguists report on the growing trend in the American south to use "Canadian" as a masking euphemism for black people, so that white racists can say socially inappropriate things without tipping listeners off about the cancer in their souls.
Source: Boston Globe
January 27, 2008
General John Glover does not appear in major history textbooks, and he is not usually mentioned in discussions about the Revolutionary War. But the Marblehead native has long been revered by town residents as an important cog in the country's fight for independence.
"He's really an unsung hero," said Kevin Stirnweis of Marblehead, captain of the 14th Continental Regiment, a reenactors' version of the outfit Glover oversaw from 1759 to 1782. "He really came to [George]
Source: NYT Magazine
January 27, 2008
Why do presidential candidates touting their concern for the economy pose with factory workers rather than with ballet troupes? After all, the U.S. now has more choreographers (16,340) than metal-casters (14,880), according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. More people make their livings shuffling and dealing cards in casinos (82,960) than running lathes (65,840), and there are almost three times as many security guards (1,004,130) as machinists (385,690). Whereas 30 percent of Americans worked
Source: AP
January 27, 2008
Erich Kaestner, believed to be the last German veteran of World War I, died Jan. 1 in Cologne. He was 107.
No organization keeps track of remaining veterans in Germany, and his death was not in the news until last week. It was confirmed Friday by his son, Peter.
“That is the way history has developed,” the son told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. “In Germany, in this respect, these things are kept quiet — they’re not a big deal.”
Source: AP
January 26, 2008
Saddam Hussein allowed the world to believe he had weapons of mass destruction to deter rival Iran and did not think the United States would stage a major invasion, according to an FBI interrogator who questioned the Iraqi leader after his capture.
Saddam expected only a limited aerial attack by the United States and thought he could remain in control, the FBI special agent, George Piro, told CBS's "60 Minutes" program in an interview to be broadcast Sunday.
&
Source: NYT
January 26, 2008
It was a lofty idea: formulate a British “statement of values” defining what it means to be British, much the way a document like the Declaration of Independence sets out the ideals that help explain what it means to be American.
Because of the peculiarities of its long history, Britain has in modern times never felt the need for such a statement. But in an era of decentralized government and citizens who tend to define themselves less by their similarities than by differences of r
Source: US News & World Report
January 17, 2008
U.S. News has selected some of the presidential campaign moments that have made a difference in shaping history....
Dirty Campaign Trick: The Phony Charles Murchison Letter Upended Grover Cleveland's 1888 Presidential Bid
Clement Moore's Anonymous Screed Against Thomas Jefferson
Source: NYT
January 28, 2008
With those words, Senator Hillary Clinton cracked open a door and a dust-up blew in. She was referring to the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and although she set her remarks in a historical continuum that took in three presidents as well as the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., her critics suggested that she had favored President Lyndon B. Johnson’s role over Dr. King’s.
But in the several weeks since, history books have been cracked, archives searched. And Americans have been reminded th
Source: NYT
January 26, 2008
The New York Police Department produced a detailed analysis in 1998 opposing plans by the city to locate its emergency command center at the World Trade Center, but the Giuliani administration overrode those objections. The command center later collapsed from damage in the Sept. 11 terrorist attack.
“Seven World Trade Center is a poor choice for the site of a crucial command center for the top leadership of the City of New York,” a panel of police experts, which was aided by the Sec
Source: NYT
January 26, 2008
Appraisal forms, import applications, reference materials. To that usual array of tools a museum might harness in assessing donated artifacts, some museums in Southern California appear to have added one more, according to investigators’ affidavits: a wink and a nudge.
Affidavits related to search warrants executed at four Southern California museums on Thursday say that staff members at two of the four museums worked closely with the main targets of the investigation, visiting a s
Source: WaPo
January 20, 2008
The National Park Service envisions a prime venue for demonstrations: a broad space at the foot of the Capitol with restrooms, seating, a paved surface, even a stand for the media.
Attorneys for activist groups fear a designated, government-approved "pit," limiting freedom of speech and movement in a hallowed place of protest.
The proposal to turn Union Square, the site of the Capitol reflecting pool and the Grant Memorial, into an "urban civic square&quo
Source: NYT
January 25, 2008
Nearly 25 years of social change, political realignment and demographic shifts separate the presidential candidacies of the Rev. Jesse Jackson and Senator Barack Obama. Even so, there are echoes of 1984 as the battle for the Democratic nomination once again roars across the South, focused squarely on African-Americans.
The differences can be summed up, in many ways, by two slogans.
“Our time has come” was Mr. Jackson’s rallying cry, a call to political empowerment for S
Source: BBC
January 25, 2008
A campaign has been launched to build a permanent memorial to a bear which spent much of its life in Scotland - after fighting in World War II.
The bear - named Voytek - was adopted in the Middle East by Polish troops in 1943, becoming much more than a mascot.
The large animal even helped their armed forces to carry ammunition at the Battle of Monte Cassino.
Source: Lawrence Repeta at the website of Japan Focus
January 21, 2008
[Lawrence Repeta is a Professor at Omiya Law School and the author of Yami wo Utsu -- Secrecy and the Future of America -- featuring interviews with leading FOIA activists in the United States, published in Japanese by Nihon Hyoronsha.]
More than six decades after the end of World War II, responsibility for wartime suffering remains a highly sensitive political issue in Asia, nowhere more so than in the Japan-Korea relationship. When the two countries normalized relations in 1965, o
Source: Secrecy News, written by Steven Aftergood, is published by the Federation of American Scientists
January 25, 2008
A rising tide of criticism of the use of the state secrets privilege to
derail litigation against the government has yielded new legislation
introduced in the Senate to define the privilege and to limit its use.
The state secrets privilege has been invoked with growing frequency to
deflect claims of unlawful domestic surveillance, detention, and torture
as well as other more mundane complaints, on grounds that adjudicating
them would cause unacceptable damage to national security.
Source: Independent (UK)
January 25, 2008
A chain-smoker, activist, and mother of nine children, Marie Smith-Jones was one of a kind. The last surviving full-blooded Alaskan Eyak, and sole native speaker of the Eyak language, she was renowned for her commitment to preserving her heritage. When she died in her sleep this week at her home in Anchorage, aged 89, she left behind a comprehensive record of the now-extinct language – a dictionary of Eyak.
Eyak is one of 20 languages spoken in Alaska, many of which are thought to b
Source: AP
January 25, 2008
It's another public relations debacle for the nation's museum industry, already tarred by reports that top institutions knowingly dealt in looted Italian artifacts.
Federal agents raided several Southern California museums on Thursday, mostly in search of artifacts allegedly taken from Thailand's Ban Chiang archeological site, one of the most important prehistoric settlements ever discovered in Southeast Asia. Authorities believe they were smuggled into the U.S. and donated at infla
Source: Guardian
January 25, 2008
Henry VIII's flagship Mary Rose will be reunited with thousands of objects spilled from her shattered hull in 1545 through a £21m grant for a new museum.
It is the last major heritage lottery grant before the fund is slashed to help pay for the 2012 Olympics - but the trustees also dug into reserves and found £10m for the Cutty Sark after the fire which gutted the 19th-century ship last year when restoration work had already started. The grant means work can start again soon.
