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: Bruce Reed in Slate
Oct 20, 2008
In the unlikely event that Democrats reached 60, what would it mean? To be sure, a cloture-sized majority would make a difference on some party-line questions that tend to get bogged down for partisan rather than ideological reasons—for example, voting rights for D.C. Prolonged confirmation battles, already infrequent, would become even more so.
But reaching 60 seats won't suspend the laws of political gravity for Senate Democrats, nor will keeping Democrats in the 50s do much to ease Sen
Source: http://www.sfltimes.com
Oct 20, 2008
In the rural Teoc community of Carroll County, Miss., where the ancestors of Sen. John McCain owned enslaved Africans on a plantation, black, white and mixed-race family members unite every two years for their Coming Home Reunion, on the land where the plantation operated.
Some of McCain’s black family members say they are not sure exactly where they fall on the family tree, but they do know this: They are either descendants of the McCain family slaves, or of children the McCains fa
Source: http://www.publicopiniononline.com
Oct 20, 2008
As the nation prepares for the upcoming presidential election, a local historian is investigating political slogans painted on an attic wall some 170 years ago.
Last spring, Mercersburg historian and archeologist Tim Rockwell began researching the writing on the attic stairwell of Flannery's Restaurant, located on the square in Mercersburg.
"I find it fascinating, especially in a presidential election year. A hundred, seventy years ago, they were talking about issues jus
Source: National Parks traveler Online
Oct 20, 2008
On November 6, 1998, President Clinton signed legislation establishing Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site at Moton Field in Tuskegee, Alabama. This was an honor fairly won and long overdue. During World War II the Tuskegee Airmen, the name given to the patriots participating in the "Tuskegee Experiment," did a truly remarkable thing when they overcame prejudice to not only become America's first all-black American fighter squadron, but also compile an enviable combat record in war
Source: NYT
Oct 20, 2008
Over the years of exploring the old houses and streets of Annapolis, Md., archaeologists have uncovered a trove of artifacts of early American slave culture. Among them are humble remains connected with religious practices, which bear the stamp of the slaves’ West African heritage.
Early in the 18th century, as they were being baptized, African-Americans clung to “spirit practices” in rituals of healing and the invocation of ancestral and supernatural powers. Sometimes called black
Source: Spiegel Online
Oct 20, 2008
It was almost exactly seven decades ago that Nazi SA thugs spread out across Germany to spread terror among the Jewish population. The event, which saw thousands of Jewish shops destroyed, hundreds of synagogues torched and dozens of Jews killed, came to be known as Kristallnacht.
Now, an Israeli journalist conducting research near Berlin has stumbled upon what might be a massive dump full of the wreckage from the pogrom, which took place on the night of Nov. 9, 1938.
Source: AP
Oct 20, 2008
Some Hispanics in the nation's ninth-largest city are suspicious of why efforts for a "Cesar Chavez Avenue" in Dallas have stumbled.
The name of the famed labor leader and civil rights activist won handily when the city asked residents to come up with a new name for Industrial Boulevard, a dull strip lined with liquor stores and bail bond offices
"Cesar Chavez Avenue" beat such names as "Riverfront" and "Trinity Lakes," but Dallas Mayor
Source: Randy Boswell at Canwest
Oct 20, 2008
It's a familiar lament in Canada: Declining public knowledge about the country's history is leading to a diminished sense of national pride.
But a new survey by the Montreal-based Association for Canadian Studies suggests the long-held assumption may not be true, and relative ignorance about Canada's past may actually foster a certain patriotic bliss.
The telephone survey of 1,500 Canadians, conducted Oct. 5-8 by Léger Marketing, showed that 73 per cent of those with ju
Source: BBC
Oct 20, 2008
The first woman to command an Irish Naval Ship is to take up her post next month.
Lieutenant Commander Roberta O'Brien, who is in her early 30s, will command the LE Aisling, one of eight ships of the service's flotilla.
A native of County Tipperary, Lt Com O'Brien is currently serving at Irish naval headquarters at Haulbowline.
Her appointment comes four years after a woman was first given command of a ship in the Royal Navy.
Source: International Herald Tribune
Oct 20, 2008
It is one of a flow of disarming asides that Russia's ambassador to Kabul deploys while warning of the grim prospects that he says will doom the American enterprise in Afghanistan if the United States fails to learn from mistakes made during the Soviet occupation of the 1980s.
"I know quite a lot about the past," the ambassador, Zamir Kabulov, said in polished English with a broad smile during an interview in Kabul one morning last week. "But almost nothing about the
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Oct 20, 2008
Harry Allen, who oversaw dozens of executions between 1941 and 1964, kept a precise log of prisoners and how they died.
His matter-of-fact journal recorded details of each prisoner's age, weight, height and his calculations of how long the rope needed to be to generate the speed required to ensure a swift death.
Referring to one hanging, Allen suggested that, with hindsight, the rope had been too short.
He noted: "Very good job but should have had anot
Source: Daily Mail (UK)
Oct 20, 2008
A tender letter written by Sir Winston Churchill to his wife to be opened only in the event of his death is to be seen by the public for the first time.
Churchill sent the revealing letter before he went to fight on the Western Front during the First World War and asks his wife 'not to grieve too much'.
The politician, who later led Britain to victory as Prime Minister in World War II, displays his unshakable self confidence, resilience, spiritual and romantic side.
Th
Source: Daily Mail (UK)
Oct 20, 2008
A team of adventurers claim they have discovered footprints made by the legendary yeti said to roam the highest part of the Himalayas.
The large hairy creature resembling a human or bear is said to live in the regions of Nepal and Tibet. While the scientific community largely regards the creature as folklore, given the lack of evidence, reports of the yeti go back hundreds of years.
Yoshiteru Takahashi, the leader of the Yeti Project Nepal, made the discovery leading hi
Source: Daily Mail (UK)
Oct 20, 2008
Former US Air Force fighter pilot Milton Torres is convinced he had an encounter with an alien spaceship in the skies over England in the 1950s.
He was warned to keep quiet about the incident, but eventually talked about it 31 years later, the newly-released Ministry of Defence files show.
On the night of May 20 1957, Dr Torres, then aged 25, was on standby at RAF Manston in Kent when he received an urgent order to scramble.
He was told to intercept a UFO with &q
Source: Deutsche Welle
Oct 20, 2008
The global financial crisis could strengthen far-right extremists, a German political scientist said, adding that he sees parallels between today's current turmoil the Nazis' rise to power in the 1930s.
"I am, of course, not prophesying that far-right extremists grab power like they did on January 30, 1933," political scientist Christoph Butterwegge told German news agency dpa. "But it is striking how similar the cycles are."
The bankruptcy of financ
Source: BBC
Oct 20, 2008
South Korean and American officials are to search the border dividing North and South Korea for the remains of troops killed in the 1950-53 Korean War.
It will be the first ever search in the demilitarised zone (DMZ) - which in spite of its name is the world's most heavily armed frontier.
The move was announced by South Korea's defence ministry.
It said more than 13,000 South Korean troops and about 2,000 US troops were believed to be buried in the zone.
Source: BBC
Oct 20, 2008
Spanish prosecutors have asked the high court to stop an investigation into atrocities during Gen Franco's rule, saying they are covered by an amnesty.
Judge Baltasar Garzon last week began investigating what happened to thousands of people who vanished during and after the civil war.
But chief prosecutor Javier Zaragoza said a 1977 amnesty covered the crimes.
A ruling on the appeal could take two months, but the inquiry can continue in the meantime.
Source: BBC
Oct 20, 2008
A photo montage which superimposed a Nazi swastika over Pope Benedict has appeared on a website run by supporters of Israel's leading political party.
The image was later removed from the Yalla Kadima website, apparently on the orders of party leader Tzipi Livni.
The incident comes amid a row with the Vatican over Israeli claims that the late Pope Pius XII could have done more to prevent the Jewish holocaust.
Ms Livni is currently trying to form a govern
Source: Reuters
Oct 20, 2008
ATHENS -- In the past two and a half thousand years, the temples of the Acropolis have suffered fire, bombing and earthquake. Now, scientists are trying to save them from a new modern enemy: pollution.
Standing on a hilltop at the centre of Athens, a city of 4 million people, the Acropolis' elaborately sculptured stones have fallen prey to a film of black crust from car exhaust fumes, industrial pollution, acid rain and fires.
A team of Greek engineers and restorers are
Source: San Francisco Chronicle
Oct 19, 2008
Political parties rise and fall, legislative theories emerge, evolve, expire. But certain debates enjoy immortality in America, persisting in the Facebook era in a form that would be familiar to the founding fathers.
One of those evergreens is the battle over who holds the reins of power in these United States - the wealthy and the educated, or the common working citizen. On one side are the elitists; on the other, populists.
Both words have been used in caustic ways in
