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: Foxnews
Jan 15, 2009
Bush gave the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Ryan Crocker, who served as U.S. ambassador to Iraq.
Making his final visit to the State Department, President Bush said the U.S. should engage the world with what he calls the "transformative power of freedom and liberty."
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice presented Bush with the flags of Afghanistan, Kosovo, Iraq, Liberia and Lebanon -- countries she says have joined the "circle of freedom" during th
Source: Foxnews
Jan 15, 2009
President Bush will give his farewell address Thursday night.
President Bush's farewell speech is more than a goodbye to the nation that elected him twice. It is his last chance in office to define his presidency in his own, unfiltered terms -- a mission that will keep his fire burning even after he fades off to a quieter life.
Bush will say goodbye to the country Thursday night. He will follow the script of Presidents Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter and
Source: Times (UK)
Jan 15, 2009
1066 is more famous, 1415 (the year of Agincourt) more Shakespearean and 1939 more globally significant. But there is another year whose impact on every area of British life is becoming ever more apparent: 1759.
Its legacy echoes through today’s headlines, with the collapse of the ceramics firm Waterford Wedgwood (founded 1759). The latest Guinness’ advertising campaign (“17:59. It’s Guinness time”) refers to the date when Arthur Guinness built a brewery for stout in Dublin.
Source: BBC
Jan 15, 2009
Both are outsiders ill-at-ease among the Paris elite; they are control-freaks who interfere in every corner of government; they are obsessed by image and see the media as a vital tool of power.
One way or another, they both dream of taking the reins of Europe.
Comparisons have been made before between Napoleon Bonaparte and his 26th successor as French head of state. But now they have been given the official imprimatur of the country's leading political commentator.
Source: BBC
Jan 15, 2009
Writing in the Guardian, Mr Miliband said the idea had unified disparate "terrorist groups" against the West.
He said the right response to the threat was to champion law and human rights - not subordinate it.
Mr Miliband repeated the views in a speech in Mumbai, India, the scene of attacks by gunmen last year.
Mr Miliband's warning comes five days before the end of US President George Bush's administration, which has led the so-called "wa
Source: Washington Post
Jan 15, 2009
A rare signed copy of the Emancipation Proclamation has been lent to the National Museum of American History by Washington financier David M. Rubenstein.
The print, one of 48 signed by President Abraham Lincoln, was purchased by Rubenstein a few months ago in a private sale. The museum is displaying the Rubenstein copy in a permanent exhibition called "The American Presidency: A Glorious Burden."
Lincoln artifacts are coveted commodities right now as the count
Source: CBS News
Jan 14, 2009
Researchers who examined an Egyptian mummy with the latest imaging technology found no evidence that a packet inside her was an offering to the gods of the ancient world.
Previous tests led to speculation that the packet was a bird mummy something researchers said would be an unusual and exciting find but high-resolution tests Thursday at Quinnipiac University showed no remnants of a bird.
Instead, researchers said the packet and a few others in the mummy likely contain
Source: The Wall Street Journal
Jan 14, 2009
The arrival of 2010 is spurring looks backwards and fears of history repeating itself. That's because in the past two centuries, there have been revolutions in Mexico—both in years ending in 10.
First there was 1810, when an insurgent priest named Miguel Hidalgo gave a nighttime battle cry that sent thousands of Mexicans into the streets to oust the Spaniards. Then came 1910, the year that was supposed to be the government's crowning centennial. Parades were held, banquets given—and
Source: BBC
Jan 14, 2009
Campaigners who want to stop Olympic equestrian events being staged in Greenwich Park have threatened to use a legal loophole from the 19th Century.
They said organisers for London's 2012 Games will be breaking a law from 1866 if they seal off parts of south east London's Blackheath.
Residents group No to Greenwich Olympic Equestrian Events (Nogoe) has raised fears the venue will cause permanent damage to the Blackheath.
But the London Organising Committee
Source: Fox News
Jan 14, 2009
President Obama has tapped George W. Bush, a prime target of Democratic criticism during the presidential campaign for his response to Hurricane Katrina, to help lead Haiti relief efforts in the aftermath of the earthquake that devastated the country two days ago.
White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said Thursday that Obama, who spoke with Bush Wednesday evening, is looking to replicate the relief effort that Clinton and George H.W. Bush led after the 2004 tsunami that struck
Source: BBC
Jan 14, 2009
The unexpected discovery of a grandfather's war diary inspired one Shropshire man to trace his entire journey across the Western Front.
For years the diary of World War I soldier Edgar Lucas lay forgotten in a cupboard.
It was only when his grandson Rob was sorting through possessions after the death of his father Dennis that he came across the book, which recorded Pte Lucas's journey across the Western Front.
The find inspired Mr Lucas, of Highley, Shro
Source: http://www.eveningsun.com
Jan 14, 2009
Five plywood boards are now plastered on the side of the Eternal Peace Light Memorial in Gettysburg after someone vandalized the monument last week.
The boards block most of the words spray painted in blue and black, though one phrase - "U can't get us" - is still visible.
"There ain't no point in it, nothing to gain by it," said James Hickman, a West Virginia man who stopped by to see the monument Tuesday afternoon.
Gettysburg National
Source: AP
Jan 14, 2009
John Brown, one of the most divisive figures in American history, is finally inspiring some unity.
Historians and officials from West Virginia, Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania have joined to form the John Brown Sesquicentennial Quad-State Committee. The panel will promote Harpers Ferry and the surrounding area as a tourist destination.
This year marks the 150th anniversary of Brown's 1859 abolitionist raid on the armory at Harpers Ferry, a major contributing fact
Source: Slate
Jan 14, 2009
Historians will be debating George Bush's presidency for decades to come—in fact, they've already started—but in one area, at least, he leaves an unambiguous legacy: He will break, once and for all, Tecumseh's Curse.
The curse—also known as the Curse of Tippecanoe, the Zero-Year Curse and the 20-Year Curse—refers to the fact that since 1840, every president elected in a year ending in a zero has died, been killed, or been shot while in office. Some curse scholars (I use the term loo
Source: Eveningsun
Jan 14, 2009
Five plywood boards are now plastered on the side of the Eternal Peace Light Memorial in Gettysburg after someone vandalized the monument last week.
The boards block most of the words spray painted in blue and black, though one phrase - "U can't get us" - is still visible.
Gettysburg National Military Park officials say the damage cannot be addressed until temperatures warm up because of the monument's unique material.
Overlooking the battlefie
Source: Deutsche Welle
Jan 14, 2009
Italy's highest court has published its written judgment ordering Germany to pay compensation to the families of Italian World War Two victims of Nazi war crimes. The Supreme Court of Cassation in Rome made its ruling last October.
But Germany last month instituted proceedings against Italy at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague, claiming Italy was failing to respect its jurisdictional immunity as a sovereign state.
German authorities have expressed c
Source: History Today
Jan 14, 2009
Restoration work has started on one of London’s most ancient buildings and home of the first Parliaments. The English Heritage project started its conservation this week (Jan 13th) on the weathered exterior of Westminster Abbey’s Chapter House. The repairs on the Chapter House, which dates from the 12th century and held the King’s Great Council in 1257, are to be completed by 2010. Tim Reeve, Properties Director for English Heritage, said: ‘The Chapter House is a building of international import
Source: National Security Archive
Jan 14, 2009
At a hearing today concerning the risks posed by the presidential transition to the recovery of millions of missing e-mails from the Executive Office of the President (EOP) in the National Security Archive's lawsuit seeking restoration of those e-mails, the White House acknowledged that it has done little to recover e-mail files from computer workstations and nothing to collect external media storage devices that could hold e-mails. These admissions came despite the issuance of a report and rec
Source: Email posted with permission by IraqiCrisis
Jan 14, 2009
Dear Chuck,
[A]bout ten days ago the minister of tourism and antiquities in Baghdad, stormed the Iraq
museum together with his armed body guards with their weapons of course, he started
threatening every body and ordered that the Iraq museum must be opened by the middle of
this February, because he had given his word for the media !! ???, after that Dr.
Amira Edan, the chairperson at the SBAH, was asked by some journalists about the
ministers' order, she told them that it was not a goo
Source: AP
Jan 14, 2009
ROME –- One of the Vatican's most secrecy shrouded tribunals, which handles confessions of sins so grave only the pope can grant absolution, is giving the faithful a peek into its workings for the first time in its 830-year history.
The Vatican has long lamented that fewer and fewer Catholics are going to confession, the sacrament in which the faithful can receive forgiveness if they sincerely confess their sins to a priest.
To combat the decline, the so-called "tr
