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
Jan 15, 2009
For Japan, the crowning of Hiromu Nonaka as its top leader would have been as significant as America’s election of its first black president.
Despite being the descendant of a feudal class of outcasts, who are known as buraku and still face social discrimination, Mr. Nonaka had dexterously occupied top posts in Japan’s governing party and served as the government’s No. 2 official. The next logical step, by 2001, was to become prime minister. Allies urged him on.
But not
Source: Nate Silver at http://www.fivethirtyeight.com
Jan 15, 2009
Although George W. Bush's approval ratings have rebounded slightly, as often happens at the end of a president's tenure, he will nevertheless finish his presidency with among the lowest scores since approval ratings came into widespread usage. Gallup pegs Bush's final approval numbers at a -27 net (34 percent approve, 61 percent disapprove), the worst for any outgoing president save Richard
Source: Concord Monitor
Jan 15, 2009
Can we inveigle you with a challenge? As we celebrate our 200th birthday, the Monitor has been digging up all sorts of history, trivia and arcane knowledge. One of our recent finds was a list of 19th century vocabulary words culled by Minnesota historian Eric Ferguson from an 1830 memoir and posted on his website, celticfringe.net. Monitor editor Felice Belman asked us to play grade school geeks for a day and write an essay using the timeworn words, and now we're asking you to do the same.
Source: Christian Science Monitor
Jan 15, 2009
US presidents have delivered 55 inaugural addresses, and if there is a single word that best describes most of these speeches, it may be “stupefying.”
Yes, some of the most memorable political phrases in American history have come from inaugurals. “With malice toward none, with charity for all….” (Lincoln). “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” (FDR). “Ask not what your country can do for you….” (JFK).
But the ones you learned about in high school are pretty
Source: Spiegel Online
Jan 15, 2009
Visitors to Berlin who stroll away from Alexander Platz to take a look at the imposing Volksbühne theater and the Hans Poelzig designed Babylon Cinema nearby may be puzzled to notice a series of metal words embedded at zigzag angles into the pavement. A closer look, though, reveals that the installation is yet another monument to history in a city full of them.
This one is to Rosa Luxemburg, or Red Rosa as she was known, and is made up of quotations from the early 20th century socia
Source: NPR Nina Totenburg
Jan 15, 2009
When a president leaves office after eight years, journalists typically write retrospectives about his time in office. The vice president is barely mentioned, if at all. But President Bush's vice president, Dick Cheney, is like no other in American history.
Before Cheney, discussion about the vice presidency focused on how to make the office stronger, more effective. Not any more.
"Vice President Cheney has been the most powerful vice president that we've ever had,
Source: National Security Archive
Jan 15, 2009
The federal magistrate judge overseeing the White House e-mail litigation today said the issue had reached "true emergency conditions" with only "two business days before the new President takes office" and that "the importance of preserving the e-mails cannot be exaggerated," according to the court's Memorandum Opinion issued this morning along with an Order and posted on the National Security Archive website, http://www.nsarchive
Source: Guardian (UK)
Jan 15, 2009
French presidents have rushed to build a great cultural monument by which to be remembered, from Georges Pompidou's art centre and François Mitterrand's Louvre glass pyramid to Jacques Chirac's museum of indigenous art. Now Nicolas Sarkozy wants his own project: a museum of the history of France.
The president, whose emphasis on French pride and "national identity" has already caused controversy, declared this week that an all-encompassing history museum would reinforce &q
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Jan 15, 2009
George W Bush has said farewell to Americans, asking the nation that elected him twice, but now regards him as the worst US president of the modern era, to understand that he had always tried to do the right thing.
In a nationwide television address, he said that though he may have made mistakes, he never shirked a tough decision and had always put the country's interests first.
Underlining how thoroughly the September 11, 2001 attacks had shaped his thinking, he said
Source: CNN
Jan 15, 2009
In the eyes of the world, President Bush is a bully engaging in "cowboy diplomacy" who has hurt America's image abroad or a liberator who has freed millions from tyranny.
Considering Bush's history before he entered the Oval Office, it is somewhat surprising that his actions in the international sphere will largely define his presidency.
During the 2000 election, then-Texas Gov. George Bush's lack of international experience was not viewed as a liability, and
Source: Chicago Tribune
Jan 15, 2009
The son watched his father, vowing not to repeat his mistakes.
The weekend before George W. Bush defeated Texas Gov. Ann Richards in 1994, he stood in the backyard of his Dallas home hitting tennis balls into the swimming pool for his dog to fetch and ruminated about the future with his media strategist, Don Sipple.
"At one point, Bush talked about his father, and he said, 'Sip, my man, don't underestimate what you can learn from a failed presidency,' " recall
Source: Foxnews
Jan 15, 2009
The Obamas, who have been staying at a hotel in Washington, couldn't move into Blair House until Australian Prime Minister John Howard, a temporary guest, left.
Five days before he moves into the White House, President-elect Barack Obama and his family were moving across the street from it on Thursday -- into Blair House, the government's official guest residence.
Built in 1824, Blair House has provided a temporary home to every president since Andrew Jackson. Since 194
Source: Foxnews
Jan 15, 2009
Most Americans say President George W. Bush is a good person, but that history will judge him harshly, according to a FOX News poll released Thursday.
Despite record low job approval ratings, most Americans think George W. Bush is a good person. And as he prepares to leave the presidency, more than twice as many people think history will be cruel to Bush as think history will be kind.
Just over half (53 percent) think history will be cruel to Bush and 30 percent thin
Source: WaPo
Jan 15, 2009
The Washington Post's key coverage of George W. Bush's presidency.
Roundtable: Woodward, Gellman on Bush Legacy
The Post's Eugene Robinson, Bob Woodward and Barton Gellman weigh the successes and failures of George W. Bush's presidency during a roundtable discussion. [video]
Bush in Photos
From Texas to Washington
A look back at George W. Bush's life, from his East Coast and Texas roots to his eventual rise to office.
Bush Abroad
Source: AP
Jan 15, 2009
WASHINGTON -- A federal court tore into the Bush White House on Thursday over the issue of millions of apparently missing e-mails, saying the administration failed in its obligation to safeguard all electronic messages.
In a four-page opinion, Magistrate Judge John Facciola said the White House is ignoring the court's instructions to search a full range of locations for all electronic messages that may be missing.
The Executive Office of the President, the magistrate sa
Source: Washington Post
Jan 15, 2009
A Justice Department lawyer told a federal judge yesterday that the Bush administration will meet its legal requirement to transfer e-mails to the National Archives after spending more than $10 million to locate 14 million e-mails reported missing four years ago from White House computer files.
Civil division trial lawyer Helen H. Hong made the disclosure at a court hearing provoked by a 2007 lawsuit filed by outside groups to ensure that politically significant records created by t
Source: BBC News
Jan 15, 2009
A debonair 40-something Senator, with a toothy smile and a lofty turn of phrase.
A made-for-television First Family. A fashion-forward First Lady. Generational change at a time of national self-doubt. No wonder the chatter in Washington is of a Black Camelot, with Barack Obama cast as Jack Kennedy, and his wife, Michelle, playing Jackie.
Stepping before the press for the first time as President-elect, with his heavily pregnant wife looking on, JFK joked that he looked f
Source: BBC
Jan 15, 2009
A Russian ex-KGB agent could soon be in control of London daily newspaper the Evening Standard.
Billionaire businessman Alexander Lebedev is believed to have made an offer for a 76% share of the paper.
He has previously revealed that he used the paper to find out information when he was a young spy based in London.
In 2006, he teamed up with ex-Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to buy the Russian paper Novaya Gazeta.
Source: CNN
Jan 15, 2009
For almost 60 years, Grace Britton Sweet has had the right to vote. She can vividly recall the day she registered.
As an African-American woman living in the South, she was one of a few black Americans who had the right to cast a ballot as early as 1953. In states like Alabama, literacy tests were given as a way to bar African-Americans from voting. If a black person was unable to answer questions such as, "If a person charged with treason denies his guilt, how many persons mus
Source: Guardian (UK)
Jan 15, 2009
Heritage Royal Air Force museum showcases black and Asian pilots who battled for Britain.
Mohinder Singh Pujji was one of 18 qualified Indian pilots to join the RAF in 1940. Now 90 he is the only one left to tell the tale and is still disgusted at the lack of recognition given to the role of black and Asian airmen and women during the war.
Pujji was treated as a hero in wartime Britain. He was ushered to the front of cinema queues and often treated to free meals in res
