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: Telegraph (UK)
Aug 19, 2008
[John Tusa recalls the day in 1968 when the Soviets brutally ended the Prague Spring.]
The radio came on a minute or two before 8am on the morning of August 21, 1968. It always did.
That was the start of family routine in our north London home. This morning, however, was shocking and unforgettable. The BBC bulletin led on the news that 165,000 Warsaw Pact forces had invaded Czechoslovakia from all points of the compass.
The blessed few months of the "P
Source: Media Matters (liberal watchdog group)
Aug 19, 2008
During an appearance at Pastor Rick Warren's Saddleback Church, responding to a question about "the most gut-wrenching decision you've ever made," Sen. John McCain cited his refusal to accept an early release from a North Vietnamese prison camp. The Politico claimed that McCain's answer "shows the power of his biography, and a new willingness to publicly discuss it." In fact, McCain has repeatedly referred to his Vietnam war experiences and has specifically cited his refusal
Source: Politico.com
Aug 19, 2008
Bob Woodward’s new book is shrouded in such mystery that even the title was a secret until now.
Publishing sources say the book, completed just three weeks ago and out Sept. 8, is titled “The War Within: A Secret White House History 2006-2008.”
The book's revelations are likely to propel a re-examination of the Iraq war into the headlines just as the fall presidential campaign is taking off.
Woodward has had remarkable cooperation from all levels of the
Source: AP
Aug 18, 2008
Archaeologists at America's first permanent English settlement are reporting the discovery of what they say are four significant finds.
The director of archaeology at Historic Jamestown, William Kelso, identifies the most significant find as an early 17th century copper pendant depicting a Powhatan Indian.
The "corn-flake" fragile copper relief is "tremendously significant" because there are so few renderings of Powhatan Indians, said Kelso.
Source: NPR
Aug 18, 2008
About two years ago, National Park Service employees stumbled upon a fascinating and largely untold piece of American history.
It involves a secret World War II interrogation camp at Fort Hunt, Va., not far from the Pentagon. During and right after the war, thousands of top German prisoners were questioned there about troop movements and scientific advances.
Soldiers at the site also prepared special "care packages" for American POWs that they sent overseas. T
Source: Ronald Brownstein in the National Journal
Aug 18, 2008
The odds are surely against it, but as John McCain and Barack Obama near the conclusion of their vice presidential selection process, there's still some speculation that one, or both, might reach outside their party to pick their running mate. For Obama, the chatter has centered on retiring Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska; for McCain, the rumors have focused on Sen. Joe Lieberman, the "Independent Democrat" from Connecticut, who has been McCain's shadow on the campaign trail. D
Source: Powerline blog
Aug 18, 2008
Here’s a footnote to the Washington Post’s story which claimed that John McCain’s “focus on Georgia raise[d] questions of propriety.” These questions, as far as one could tell from the story, were raised solely by the Obama campaign. One of them had to do with McCain’s request that Senators Lieberman and Graham travel to Georgia to assess the situation.
In a letter in today’s Post, Richard Allen, a foreign policy adviser to Richard Nixon’s 1968 campaign and Ronald Reagan’s 1968 camp
Source: Fox News
Aug 18, 2008
FORT WORTH, Texas — Twice a day, just a few miles from downtown, Texas
longhorn cattle _ icons of the Old West _ mosey down a street, hooves
clicking on the brick pavement and heads bobbing under the weight of
intimidating horns that stretch nearly 7 feet from tip to tip.
Tourists visiting the nation's 17th-largest city line the sidewalks and
gleefully snap pictures as a few cowboys on horses herd about 15 of the
animals down the block, onto a side street and back into their large p
Source: AP
Aug 18, 2008
An 18-year-old Harold Mattern welcomed the idea of
clearing forest trails and building bridges and dams as a member of
President Roosevelt's Civilian Conservation Corps.
It was the Great Depression. Many in his home state of Connecticut were
desperate for employment, hoping to earn enough to feed their families.
"My father was out of work so I was eligible. I was single and I was out
of school and all, and unemployed," said Mattern, now 93."It was good
physical work, good hard wo
Source: Times
Aug 18, 2008
German politicians are dismayed about the desecration of a monument to tens of thousands of homosexuals persecuted under the Nazis that was opened less than three months ago in Berlin.
Police said they were looking for the perpetrators who attacked the monument, a large grey cube in the Tiergarten park in Central Berlin, at the weekend.
The vandals smashed a window through which viewers could see a picture of two men kissing and ripped down fencing. Police said it was
Source: NYT
Aug 18, 2008
The story of how a 16-year, low-grade conflict over who should rule two small, mountainous regions in the Caucasus erupted into the most serious post-cold-war showdown between the United States and Russia is one of miscalculation, missed signals and overreaching, according to interviews with diplomats and senior officials in the United States, the European Union, Russia and Georgia. In many cases, the officials would speak only on the condition of anonymity.
It is also the s
Source: NYT
Aug 18, 2008
TEL AVIV — Franz Kafka’s final wish before his death in 1924 — that his papers be burned — was famously defied by his friend, the writer Max Brod. The world got “The Trial,” “The Castle” and the adjective Kafkaesque; Mr. Brod got the papers.
When Mr. Brod fled to Tel Aviv from Prague on the last train out in 1939 as the Nazis rolled in, he had with him a suitcase full of Kafka’s documents.
Here, he took up with his secretary, and when he died in 1968, he bequeathed to h
Source: LAT
Aug 18, 2008
Most deaths in the 1918 influenza pandemic were due not to the virus alone but to common bacterial infections that took advantage of victims' weakened immune systems, according to two new studies that could change the nation's strategy against the next pandemic.
"We have to realize that it isn't just antivirals that we need," said Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and coauthor of one study. "We need to make sur
Source: Independent Mail of South Carolina Online
Aug 17, 2008
A second canoe believed to date back hundreds of years to early
Native American residents of Oconee County has arrived at the Oconee
Heritage Center.
It will now join the canoe found in the Chattooga River in 2002 in a
preservation process and eventual exhibits at the museum, according to
Nick Gambrell, the center’s curator and director.
The latest canoe, found in the Keowee River, was discovered last month by
three young boys, Gambrell said.
Source: http://www.dw-world.de/dw
Aug 17, 2008
West Berlin's most famous landmark and a poignant reminder of the horrors of war is threatened by collapse. Now a range of people, including soccer players and former enemies, are trying to preserve it.
When the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church was destroyed by a British bombing raid in World War II, all that remained was its gaping, ruined tower. Still, Berliners protested plans to demolish the blackened, badly shattered belfry, which rises almost 70 meters (230 feet) over the western part
Source: NPR
Aug 17, 2008
A group of people claiming to be the heirs of the legendary Knights Templar are suing Pope Benedict XVI, seeking more than $150 billion for assets seized by the Catholic Church seven centuries ago.
They also want to restore the order's good name. Founded in 1119, the Knights Templar was a secretive order of Christian warriors who protected pilgrims on their way to Jerusalem during the Crusades. They fell out of favor years later, and members were accused of denying Christ, worshippi
Source: AP
Aug 17, 2008
It took nine years of sleuthing and advanced DNA science and cutting-edge forensic techniques, but a mummified hand and arm found in an Alaska glacier have been identified.
The remains belong to Francis Joseph Van Zandt, a 36-year-old merchant mariner from Roanoke, Va., who was on a plane rumored to contain lots of gold when it smashed into the side of a mountain in 1948. Thirty people died in the crash of Northwest Airlines Flight 4422.
"This is the oldest identi
Source: AP
Aug 17, 2008
A group of Native Hawaiians claiming to be the state's legitimate rulers occupied the grounds of a historic palace for two hours before being arrested by state officers in the second recent takeover of its kind.
A staff member of the Iolani Palace said she was assaulted and slightly injured during the takeover Friday night, then snubbed by city police who claimed they didn't have jurisdiction. Gov. Linda Lingle said Saturday that there would be an investigation into the police response t
Source: Detroit Free Press
Aug 17, 2008
Al Smith spent the last 12 years filling in the shell of his cherry-red 1957 2-door Chevrolet Bel Air.
And today, it became a part of history, driving in a parade of 100 General Motors Corp. vehicles to celebrate the automaker’s 100-year history at the Woodward Dream Cruise.
“These cars are automotive art,” said Smith, whose wife is a financial manager at GM, which was founded almost 100 years ago – on Sept. 16, 1906.
GM put out a call to employees and reti
Source: Halifax Herald
Aug 17, 2008
If it hadn’t been for the presence of aboriginal people, European settlers could not have endured life in Nova Scotia centuries ago, a conference in Halifax heard Saturday.
Amateur historian Niven Sinclair said the Mi’kmaq helped colonizers adapt quickly to the New World, and for that their efforts should be publicly praised.
"The reality is that the early voyagers who came to these shores could not survive for a single day without the help of the indigenous peopl
