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: AP
November 11, 2006
The remains of a missing Air Force officer whose plane was shot down over North Vietnam in 1965 have been identified, the Pentagon announced.
Col. Charles J. Scharf, of San Diego, was flying his F-4C Phantom after a pair of bombing missions when he was shot by enemy fire.
The Pentagon said Thursday that his remains had been identified after specialists matched the DNA from gummed adhesive on envelopes of letters Scharf sent his wife Patricia to a bone fragment found n
Source: AP
November 12, 2006
The message was simple: Write a letter to someone lost in the Korean War. Within a day, responses started pouring in for the latest effort by brothers Hal and Ted Barker to remember the war their father didn't like to discuss. In the three weeks since their plea went out, more than 500 letters and e-mails have arrived -- from daughters who lost their fathers to veterans who lost friends to schoolchildren thanking those who died for their freedom.
"It's been a catharsis for a l
Source: AP
November 11, 2006
BUTLER, Ga. -- A display in a central Georgia community divides the names of 800 local veterans into two lists, marked in large type: "Whites" and "Colored."
The display has been in the lobby of the Taylor County courthouse since 1944, honoring servicemembers who fought in World War II. The two lists are mounted side by side behind glass in two large frames.
John Cole Vodicka, an activist from Americus, is organizing a rally Monday at the courthous
Source: Telegraph (UK)
November 12, 2006
The German government has called a crisis meeting about how it deals with art sold by or confiscated from Jews under the Nazis after controversy over paintings restored to their original families only to be auctioned for vast sums abroad.
Angela Merkel, the chancellor, has summoned culture ministers and museum directors from Germany's 16 federal states next week to discuss an overhaul of the "restitution" law, which critics say is stripping the country's museums of importa
Source: WaPo
November 12, 2006
It was getting toward dusk, the sun headed down on yet another day in the very long life of Frank Woodruff Buckles.
He had come to see the grave of Gen. John J. Pershing, on a hill in Arlington National Cemetery. Buckles once shook the great soldier's hand, chatted with him in Oklahoma City, 1920, after the war. Now he sat in a wheelchair on a small stage near the headstone and waited for the ceremony to begin: Veterans Day again.
He's a few months shy of 106, the young
Source: Reuters
November 13, 2006
U.S. civil rights leaders on Monday dug gold-tipped shovels into a trough of dirt to break ground for the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial, the first monument to an African-American on the National Mall.
``As we turn these shovels we are just beginning to turn the dirt, and as we turn this dirt at this ground, let us go back to our communities and turn the dirt there,'' said former King aide Andrew Young, admonishing attendees to continue the slain leader's work against racism, pover
Source: Secrecy News, written by Steven Aftergood, is published by the Federation of American Scientists
November 13, 2006
As Director of Central Intelligence from 1991-1993, Robert M. Gates,
the nominee to be the next Secretary of Defense, grappled with
questions of government secrecy more than almost any other agency
head and helped to inaugurate a decade of increasing openness in
intelligence and elsewhere.Though he said the term "CIA openness" was "an oxymoron," Mr. Gates
also expressed the view that the interests of the CIA would best be
served by eliminating unne
Source: Independent (UK)
November 12, 2006
The Republican performance in this week's midterm elections has led many commentators to describe Bush as the most disastrous leader in US history. But what about the competition? We asked the experts to cast their votes:
George W Bush: chosen by Owen Dudley Edwards
The question "who is the worst US president" is something I have thought long and hard about and the answer is very simple: it is the incumbent president. I had previously thought that Nixon was th
Source: WaPo
October 31, 2006
"[...]Aldrena Thirkill doesn't know what happened to her. As an adult,
she can remember surprisingly little of her life between 1959 -- when
the schools closed, with bitter fanfare and flamboyantly racist rhetoric
-- and 1964, when the county was grudgingly compelled to reopen public
schools on an integrated basis. Five years of her life:
lost. And so, Aldrena has begun to try to reconstruct what happened --
to her personality, her education, her family -- during this traumatic
period of
Source: WaPo
November 12, 2006
When she wasn't racing to school at St. Leo's in her blue uniform or buying sweets in Mugavero's Confectionery or playing on front stoops up and down the block, Little Nancy sometimes worked the front desk at the family home at 245 Albemarle St., taking down the requests and sad stories of the folks who arrived to seek help from Big Tommy, her dad.
Or maybe she was riding around with her dad and his bullhorn, as he touted his candidacy from a convertible.
The late Thoma
Source: Cleveland Plain Dealer
November 11, 2006
The "war to end all wars" didn't.
But the people who lived through World War I, and gave it that designation, perhaps figured that any conflict that killed 15 million soldiers and civilians would leave a lasting impression.
They also created an annual reminder of that war in Armistice Day - marking the truce that ended four years of battle on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918.
Then came World War II and the realization
Source: San Francisco Chronicle
November 11, 2006
A famed and well-loved literary figure strolls streets and alleys of North Beach in San Francisco. Lawrence Ferlinghetti, 87, has pale blue eyes accented by a fringe of white hair. His tall, slender form is held erect with gentle, patrician dignity. If you didn't know this Beat poet and City Lights bookstore co-founder was a big star of the counterculture, you might think he has a military bearing.
Actually, he does. The crusading publisher of fiery cultural broadsides like Allen G
Source: LAT
November 11, 2006
Maurice Floquet, 111, who had been France's oldest living World War I veteran, died Friday at his home in Montauroux in southern France, an association of veterans said.
With Floquet's death, only four French veterans of the Great War are still alive.
Born Dec. 25, 1894, Floquet joined the infantry in September 1914. He fought in France and Belgium and was seriously wounded twice. The first time, in the battle of the Somme in northern France, he was injured during han
Source: NYT
November 12, 2006
THE road map today is mostly virtual — an electronic image on a screen, at home or in the car, provided by Mapquest or a built-in satellite navigation system. Setting out on a long journey, I half expect to see the marker pins of a Google map rearing above the highway like giant hat pins, shadowing the pavement ahead.
Perhaps it is the contrast with digital maps that makes old-fashioned paper road maps seem rich and wonderful again. Those colorful guides once found in every glove co
Source: Independent (UK)
November 10, 2006
To casual observers, Timbuktu is a bit like Glastonbury without the mud: an ancient town, renowned for its remoteness, spiritual history, and world-famous music festival.
In future, they could have even more in common. Yesterday, the Somerset market town emerged as a leading contender in the competition to provide Timbuktu with a British twin.
The Cultural Mission of Timbuktu announced that Glastonbury was one of three finalists shortlisted from more than fifty UK town
Source: AP
November 10, 2006
Gerald R. Ford is closing in on a record held by Ronald Reagan -- living longer than any other U.S. president. Ford, who turned 93 on July 14, will become the oldest president Sunday by living to 93 years and 121 days.
"The length of one's days matters less than the love of one's family and friends," Ford said in a statement this week from the Rancho Mirage compound he shares with former first lady Betty Ford, 88.
Ford was president from Aug. 9, 1974, when R
Source: AP
November 10, 2006
Forensic experts said Friday they found a new mass grave in northeastern Bosnia believed to contain the remains of more than 100 victims of the 1995 Srebrenica massacre where Serb forces buried some of the almost 8,000 victims.
The grave in Snagovo village, about 30 miles north of Srebrenica, was found after experts received a tip-off from an undisclosed source, said Murat Hurtic, head of Bosnia's Missing Persons Commission.
It is the seventh mass grave Hurtic's team
Source: SOPnewswire
November 10, 2006
Engineers are striving to restore full communications with NASA's Mars Global Surveyor on the 10th anniversary of the spacecraft's Nov. 7, 1996, launch.
The orbiter is the oldest of five NASA spacecraft currently active at the red planet. Its original mission was to examine Mars for a full Martian year, roughly two Earth years. Once that period elapsed, considering the string of discoveries, NASA extended the mission repeatedly, most recently on Oct. 1 of this year.
T
Source: Richmond Times-Dispatch
November 10, 2006
The new National Museum of the Marine Corps solves a national problem, President Bush told an audience of 15,000 invited guests at Quantico yesterday.
"For too long, the only people who have the direct experience of the Marine Corps are the Marines themselves and the enemy who's made the mistake of taking them on," he said to applause.
Bush noted the $90 million museum off Interstate 95 guides visitors through interactive exhibits and galleries, including one
Source: Reuters
November 10, 2006
Looking to the future after their "seismic" loss of power in the U.S. Congress, some Republicans are turning to the past and the glory days of Ronald Reagan's presidency for inspiration.
"We are in the wilderness because we walked away from the limited government principles that minted the Republican Congress," Rep. Mike Pence wrote to colleagues after Democrats seized control of the House of Representatives and the Senate in this week's elections.
T
