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
February 17, 2011
JACKSON, Miss. – Does Haley Barbour have a Confederate problem?It's a question hounding Mississippi's Republican governor as he gears up for a possible 2012 presidential run. Barbour refused this week to condemn a proposed state license plate to honor
Source: Telegraph (UK)
February 22, 2011
Britain and the US have fuelled instability in the Middle East by supporting autocratic regimes that suppress human rights, David Cameron has said.
The Prime Minister said that popular uprisings now flaring across the Middle East showed the West had been wrong to back dictators and undemocratic regimes.
Britain and other Western countries supported Hosni Mubarak, ousted by protests in Egypt earlier this month.
Under Labour from 2004, Britain also strengthe
Source: Telegraph (UK)
February 21, 2011
Japan is creating an espionage agency for the first time since the end of the Second World War, amid growing tensions with its superpower neighbour China and nuclear-armed North Korea.
The new unit, modelled on MI6 and the CIA, will also be tasked with gathering information to prevent terrorist attacks against Japanese targets, according to a US government cable obtained by WikiLeaks.
The cable, which records an October 2008 discussion between Hideshi Mitani, Japan’s C
Source: AP
February 22, 2011
ozens of Thomas Jefferson's books have been found in the rare books collection at Washington University in St. Louis.
Scholars are now poring through the 28 titles and 74 volumes, searching for the occasional handwritten note from the nation's third president. And librarians say it's possible more of Jefferson's books will be found in the school's collection.
The school announced the discovery Monday, on the Presidents Day holiday in the U.S.
Librarians say Jeffe
Source: CNN
February 22, 2011
A unique anniversary at the Supreme Court passed in silence Tuesday, befitting the occasion. It has been five years to the day since Justice Clarence Thomas last spoke at oral argument, another reflection of the complex, dynamic, often misunderstood personality of the court's only African-American jurist.
The two hours of morning arguments found the 62-year-old Thomas rocking in his high-backed leather chair, often consulting legal papers in front of him. He stroked his hair a few t
Source: NYT
February 17, 2011
Again with the hand-wringing over what to name a bridge. Edward I. Koch is having as much trouble getting a bridge for himself as George Washington did 80 years ago on the other side of the island. In George Washington’s case, there was actually a public referendum on whether to call the George Washington Bridge the George Washington Bridge. And George Washington actually lost.
George had popped up entirely from out of the blue. Not once from the very conception of the world’s might
Source: Canada Free Press
February 21, 2011
Many former slaves left a political legacy that’s been ignored or completely forgotten by their descendants—even during Black History Month.
As they struggled against the violence and racism of the mid-1800s, it’s likely they thought the inheritance they left would continue to improve the lives of their descendants.
Their legacy is the Republican Party.
For decades, Black people have given over 90 percent of their votes to the Democrat Party. The Democrats
Source: Yahoo News
February 18, 2011
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – Faithful attending the beatification of Pope John Paul in Rome will be able to pray before his coffin, which will be exhumed for the event, the Vatican said on Friday.
The Vatican also warned the faithful around the world not to fall prey to fraudsters, particularly on the Internet, who are selling tickets to the beatification ceremony on May 1.
"For the beatification Mass of Pope John Paul II, as made clear from the outset, no tickets are
Source: Daily Mail (UK)
February 18, 2011
It was the logical way to take out targets that were essentially massive balloons filled with flammable gas.
When British First World War pilots were asked to destroy German Zeppelins, they did not turn to guns - but a giant exploding dart.
Now one of the foot-long steel-tipped darts is being sold at auction, without the explosives, and is expected to fetch £1,200.
British biplane pilots would fly above the giant airships - filled with highly flammable hyd
Source: Daily Mail (UK)
February 21, 2011
He was the world’s first black heavyweight champion 100 years before Barack Obama became America’s first black president.
But more than a century on, boxer Jack Johnson's family say there is still a ‘stigma’ hanging over him after his relationship with a white woman landed him in prison.
Lawmakers are pushing a posthumous presidential pardon campaign for the boxer, whose flamboyant lifestyle and romantic ties with white women flamed racial tension.
Authorit
Source: Daily Mail (UK)
February 19, 2011
When it was founded in 1653, it aimed to rival the college libraries of Oxbridge and provide a place for independent study in the north of England.
Today, Chetham's Library is the oldest surviving public library in Britain, housed in the centre of Manchester in a medieval sandstone building which used to be a prison and arsenal.
It was created at the behest of Humphrey Chetham, a successful cloth merchant, whose will stipulated that the Library should be 'for the use of
Source: NYT
February 12, 2011
CAIRO — Two Egyptian leaders have been struck down in 30 years: one by an Islamist assassin’s bullets, the other by the demands of hundreds of thousands of protesters in a peaceful uprising. The first event, the death of President Anwar el-Sadat, marked a spectacle of the most militant brand of political Islam. The revolution the world witnessed Friday, the toppling of President Hosni Mubarak, may herald the dawn of something else.
There is a fear in the West, one rarely echoed her
Source: NYT
February 13, 2011
MAOTAI, China — If history is indeed written by the victors, then this isolated mountain hamlet in southern Guizhou Province hit the jackpot when Red Army soldiers sought refuge here in the spring of 1935. Exhausted by their long-distance retreat from Nationalist forces, Mao’s guerrillas used the town’s bracing 144-proof liquor to disinfect wounds, tame diarrhea and take the edge off their jangled nerves.
“The Long March was a success in large part due to Maotai,” the rebel commande
Source: Lee White at the National Coalition for History
February 15, 2011
The Administration’s FY 2012 budget request to Congress for the Smithsonian is $861.5 million, an increase from the $761.1 million appropriated to the Institution in fiscal year 2010. The Salaries and Expenses request for FY 2012 is $636.5 million (nearly the same as 2010) and the Facilities Capital budget is $225 million, which includes $125 million for the construction of the National Museum of African American History and Culture.
Source: Lee White at the National Coalition for History
February 15, 2011
On February 14, the Administration released the proposed fiscal year 2012 budget for the National Intelligence Program (NIP). NIP would receive $55 billion in FY ’12 versus $53.1 billion in FY ’10. The NIP includes funding for most of the non-military spy agencies and is not subject to the President’s freeze on non-security discretionary spending.The $55 billion is the ag
Source: Lee White at the National Coalition for History
February 15, 2011
President Obama has requested $242.6 million in fiscal year 2012 for the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). This is a $40 million cut from the $282.2 million the agency received in FY ’10. The Institute of Museum and Library Services is the primary source of federal support for the nation’s 123,000 libraries and 17,500 museums.Library ProgramsThe President reque
Source: Lee White at the National Coalition for History
February 15, 2011
On February 14, President Obama asked Congress for $146.2 million to fund the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) for fiscal year (FY) 2012, a $21.3 million cut from the FY 10 appropriated level of $167.5 million.The President’s request includes:$102,700,000 for the Endowment’s grant programs in support of research, preservation, public programming, and teaching in the hu
Source: Lee White at the National Coalition for History
February 15, 2011
On February 14, President Obama submitted to Congress his proposed fiscal year 2012 budget for the National Park Service. History-related programs were particularly hard hit with the proposed elimination of two preservation programs (Save America’s Treasures and Preserve America) and a 50 percent cut in Heritage Partnership programs.The National Park Service (NPS) would receive $2.9 billion in
Source: Lee White at the National Coalition for History
February 15, 2011
On February 14, President Obama sent to Congress a proposed Fiscal Year 2012 budget request that calls for $422.5 million for the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). The amount represents an 8.2 percent decrease from the FY 2011 President’s Budget request of $460.2 million.For the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) , the grant-making arm of the National Archi
Source: Lee White at the National Coalition for History
February 15, 2011
The Republican leadership in the House of Representatives today brought to the floor a massive continuing resolution (H.R. 1) that would fund the federal government for the remainder of FY ’11. Agencies and programs important to the history and archival communities, such as Teaching American History Grants, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Historical Publications and Records Commission and others
