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: San Antonio Express-News
January 19, 2007
Congress is exploring the possibility of building a national museum in the capital that highlights the historical contributions of Latinos in American society.
Legislation has been filed in the House and Senate that would create a commission to study the viability of a Latino museum, and create a public-private partnership to raise funds to build a museum.
"Although American Latinos have made and continue to make significant contributions to the culture and histo
Source: Independent (UK)
January 21, 2007
A group of Kalahari Bushmen, one of the oldest tribal societies in the world, have returned to their ancestral hunting grounds after defeating international diamond mining companies and the government of Botswana in an historic court decision.
Forty Bushmen managed to return to the Central Kalahari Game Reserve, in the arid heart of southern Africa, despite a heavy police presence and attempts to persuade them to stay in relocation camps. "Today is the same day for us as Nelso
Source: Observer (UK)
January 21, 2007
The ministry of Defence and Buckingham Palace have confirmed they are not sending a minister or senior representative to the Falkland Islands to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the war against Argentina.
This has infuriated forces veterans, who view the move as a failure to acknowledge a campaign in which 255 British troops died, almost a third more than the casualties sustained in Iraq and Afghanistan combined.
The MoD said the archipelago's 'unpleasant' and 'chil
Source: Observer (UK)
January 21, 2007
As the train pulls into the central station of Buenos Aires, Jose is still walking down the aisle hawking a clutch of goods. An olive-green jacket, a patch with an Argentinian flag on his right arm, and a silhouette of the Malvinas Islands signal he is one of the many veterans of the Falklands war supplementing their meagre pensions. What he sells is patriotism - small calendars and stickers bearing the slogan: 'The Malvinas were, are and always will be Argentinian.'
But he tells a
Source: Telegraph (UK)
January 21, 2007
BERLIN -- The grandson of a man hanged by the Nazis for his part in an attempt to assassinate Adolf Hitler is battling for the return of priceless artworks confiscated from his family in retribution.
But Carl-Friedrich Wentzel has accused today's German authorities of "stonewalling" after museums refused to allow him access to their vaults and archives, where he believes some of the 200 paintings, sculptures and antique furniture that belonged to his grand-father may be st
Source: UPI
January 20, 2007
Brandeis University has denied director Jonathan Demme access to a speech by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, which Demme wanted to shoot for a film.
The university will not allow Demme to film Carter's upcoming speech, which the Oscar-winning filmmaker said he intended to use in a documentary about Carter, the Boston Globe reported.
The school's decision angered Demme and added another wrinkle to Carter's controversial visit to the university.
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Source: NYT
January 23, 2007
Even as more commentators on both the left and the right are using the adjective “incompetent” to describe the administration of George W. Bush, historians like Douglas Brinkley, Sean Wilentz and Eric Foner have begun to argue that Mr. Bush is in contention for the title of worst president in history, citing reasons like the metastasizing war in Iraq, a ballooning deficit, the mishandling of Hurricane Katrina and a widening credibility gap.
Yet in a lively new book on the Supreme Co
Source: http://www.onlineathens.com
January 20, 2007
... Six presidential and Carter scholars [at a conference at the Carter Center] decided that Carter probably was a better president than conventional wisdom suggests, and will continue to be viewed more positively in the future.
"I don't think the Carter administration was a failure," Vanderbilt University political scientist Erwin Hargrove said. "I don't think it was a successful administration, either."
Panelists called Carter a transitional figure
Source: Dallas Morning News
January 22, 2007
The University of Dallas, the little Catholic campus that had big hopes of hosting the Bush presidential library, dropped out of the race Monday as signs increasingly point to Southern Methodist University as the winner.
UD leaders played up the positives.
"It's not a failure. Instead, we think this is a tremendous success story for us," UD President Frank Lazarus said at a news conference. "This process has propelled us onto the national stage, and our u
Source: NYT
January 23, 2007
The public financing system for presidential campaigns, a post-Watergate initiative hailed for decades as the best way to rid politics of the corrupting influence of money, may have quietly died over the weekend.
Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York became the first candidate since the program began in 1976 to forgo public financing for both the primary and the general election because of the spending limits that come with the federal money. By declaring her confidence that sh
Source: Richmond Times-Dispatch
January 23, 2006
RICHMOND, Va. - The ruins of a 17th century iron blast
furnace found in Chesterfield County is believed to be
the first ironworks in English North America and the
earliest known evidence of heavy industry in the New
World, county officials said Friday.
County public utilities employee Ralph Lovern, an
amateur archaeologist who often searches the area for
Indian artifacts, uncovered the furnace along the
banks of Falling Creek.
Source: Inside Higher Ed
January 22, 2007
Professors are all Democrats, except those who are communists. Professors all hate Bush. Professors favor like-minded students and love converting those who love God, country and the president. You’ve read all the claims and more, in right-leaning blogs and columns. Frequently, these claims are based on studies — many have been released in the last two years — of professors. Party registration is documented, or professors respond to surveys, or syllabus content is rated.
A new study
Source: http://www.travelandleisure.com
February 1, 2007
Last summer, the Iraqi State Board of Antiquities & Heritage in Baghdad invited me to be among the first foreign reporters since Saddam’s day to visit the ruins. About 35 Iraqi archaeologists were at work, backed up by 180 Archaeological Police officers. Most of the site, about 2,000 acres, is surrounded by barbed wire. American forces were there for four months during and after the 2003 invasion, and the directorate is still angry about their alleged treatment of the site. The soldiers pour
Source: Secrecy News, written by Steven Aftergood, is published by the Federation of American Scientists
January 22, 2007
The Director of the Congressional Research Service last week
issued a revised agency policy on"Interacting with the Media"
that warns CRS analysts about the"very real risks" associated
with news media contacts and imposes new restrictions on
speaking to the press.
"CRS staff must report within 24 hours all on-the-record
interactions with any media to their supervisor, including the
name of the reporter, media affiliation, date, time, and detailed
notes on the matters discussed or to b
Source: Bloomberg News
January 22, 2007
George W. Bush came to power in 2001 vowing to make his mark on history by overhauling taxes, pensions and schools. Instead, an item not on the original agenda -- the war in Iraq -- may consign him to the bottom tier of U.S. leaders.
That's the view of a number of historians and presidential scholars, who say that unless Bush's decision to inject some 20,000 more troops succeeds in quelling sectarian violence, he risks joining the ranks of such poorly regarded American leaders as Ja
Source: Payvand's Iran News
January 22, 2007
The US Federal Court held a hearing yesterday about the ancient Persian tablets loaned by Iran to the University of Chicago in the 1930s following the quarrel after a previous judgment authorized the plaintiff to auction off the invaluable Persian relics.According to William Harms, the press contact of Chicago University, the results of Federal Court Case Jan. 19 on the Persian Tablets involving the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago were as follows:
Source: AZ Daily Sun
January 22, 2007
On the floors of the House and Senate, in committee hearings and news conferences since the president's Jan. 10 announcement, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle and both sides of the war debate have repeatedly invoked America's longest war.Opponents use the vocabulary of the Vietnam War as they talk of opposing an escalation that they consider as divisive as those pushed by Presidents Johnson and Nixon in the 1960s and early 1970s. And supporters of the president warn of r
Source: NYT
January 21, 2007
THE time has come, Senator Barack Obama says, for the baby boomers to get over themselves.
In taking the first steps toward a presidential candidacy last week, Mr. Obama, who was born in 1961 and considers himself a member of the post-boomer generation, said Americans hungered for “a different kind of politics,” one that moved beyond the tired ideological battles of the 1960s.
To make his point, Mr. Obama, a Democrat from Illinois in his first term in the Senate, announ
Source: NYT
January 22, 2007
Two years before the next president is inaugurated and a full year before the first vote is cast, the contest for the White House is off to a breathtakingly fast start, exposing an ever-growing field of candidates to longer, more intensive scrutiny and increasing the amount of money they need to remain viable.
On Sunday, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, Democrat of New York, held her first campaign event, highlighting her focus on health care a day after declaring her plans to run. A
Source: LAT
January 11, 2007
The military's new strategy for Iraq envisions creating "gated communities" in Baghdad — sealing off discrete areas and forcibly removing insurgents, then stationing American units in the neighborhood to keep the peace and working to create jobs for residents.
The U.S. so far has found it impossible to secure the sprawling city. But by focusing an increased number of troops in selected neighborhoods, the military hopes it can create islands of security segregated from the
