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
Mar 3, 2008
One LED if by land, and two if by sea? The Old North Church, a beacon for Paul Revere's famous warning of the movement of British forces, and a symbol of the American Revolution, has gone high-tech with the installation of light-emitting diodes, or LEDs.
The energy-efficient lights illuminate ceiling vaults inside the church, whose steeple was used to display two lanterns as a signal about British troop movements on April 18, 1775 — the night described in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow'
Source: Times (UK)
Mar 3, 2008
Seamus Heaney has given warning that modern Ireland is in danger of losing its unique spiritual values to the brashly secular economy-driven values of the “Celtic Tiger”.
In a lament for a lost Ireland, the Nobel laureate said that the Celtic Tiger — the catchphrase that has come to stand for modern Ireland’s economic success — was attacking the ancient symbol of Ireland: the harp.
The focus of this battle between two visions of Ireland is Tara, an ancient site sacred t
Source: Deborah Lipstadt at her blog
Mar 3, 2008
This morning's Le Soir, a Belgian newspaper which has been following the Misha hoax story pretty carefully, carries a stunning story on this ever more sordid story.According to the article, her father, Robert DeWa
Source: Newsweek
Mar 3, 2008
Hillary Clinton has always been the woman who doesn't quit. Her supporters testify to her stamina—how at an endless upstate meeting on agriculture subsidies, she asked penetrating questions when everyone else was asleep; how after umpteen drafts of an important policy address, she wrote the thing herself. Then there's her marriage, how after Bill embarrassed her in front of the world, she stuck by him. She thrives by outlasting everyone. The no-good husband and the cloying press corps, the borin
Source: Newsweek
Mar 3, 2008
[Barack] Obama himself does not believe that America is "post racial," a phrase he rejects as naive. To the contrary, reports NEWSWEEK's Richard Wolffe, who reports from the Obama campaign, the senator recognizes that the country's legacy of racism is too deep to be eradicated overnight, or even over the course of his campaign. Nevertheless, Obama has said, voters are judging candidates on their ability to fix health care, foreign policy, the economy and education, not on a candidate's
Source: http://www.clarionledger.com
Mar 2, 2008
City leaders have made their feelings known: Downtown Jackson is a better location than Tougaloo College for the National Civil Rights Museum of Mississippi.
The museum's site in recent weeks has pitted powerful Jackson business and civic leaders against a proud group of alums who support Tougaloo, the small, predominately African-American college northwest of the city.
But it shouldn't be that way. So said Wilma Mosely Clopton, president of the Historic Farish Street Distric
Source: Voice of America
Mar 2, 2008
The presidents of Venezuela and Ecuador have ordered troops to their countries' respective borders with Colombia, after Colombian forces bombed a rebel camp in Ecuador's territory. VOA's Michael Bowman reports from Washington, the surge in tensions are the latest chapter in a period of frosty relations between Colombia's U.S.-backed leader and Venezuela socialist-firebrand president.
Colombia and Venezuela both trace the origins of their nationhood to the independence movement led b
Source: BBC
Mar 2, 2008
Political conventions have played a unique role in American political history.
In theory, the convention is a conference where party activists come together to choose a presidential nominee.
But in recent years, the parties have managed to narrow down their choice to just one candidate long before the convention begins.
Consequently, they have become stage-managed events, marking the official launch of the presidential campaign of a candidate already select
Source: CNN
Mar 2, 2008
March is Women's History Month, a federally recognized, nationwide celebration that encourages all Americans to reflect on the ways in which women have shaped U.S. history. But how did this celebration come to be, and why is it held in March?
"I long to hear that you have declared an independency, and by the way, in the new code of laws which I suppose it will be necessary for you to make, I desire you would remember the ladies..."-- Abigail Adams, March 31, 1776
Source: BBC
Mar 2, 2008
Victims of the Bethnal Green Tube disaster in London have been remembered at a special service marking its 65th anniversary. Survivor Alf Morris spoke to the BBC about his memories of the deadly crush.
It was one of Britain's worst civilian disasters during World War II.
On the evening of 3 March, 1943, a crowd of people were descending the steps into Bethnal Green underground station to take shelter from an impending air-raid.
Suddenly, they surged forward and i
Source: http://www.newscientist.com
Mar 2, 2008
The looting of Iraq's cultural treasures made headlines around the world in the wake of the invasion by the US and its allies in
March 2003. Now the extent of the harm to archaeological sites in southern Iraq has been quantified, thanks to commercial
satellite images.
Modern-day Iraq contains relics from some of the world's oldest cities and is often referred to as the" cradle of civilisation".
Anecdotal reports and helicopter flyovers suggested the looting of artifacts has been wide
Source: Times of India
Mar 2, 2008
An ancient human burial site, estimated to be 3,000 years old, was unearthed at Drugdhamna on Nagpur-Amravati road by the department of ancient Indian history, culture and archaeology, Rashtrasant Tukdoji Maharaj Nagpur University, recently.
The department head Pradeep Meshram told TOI that recently the department received information about the existence of some old structures on Nagpur-Amravati road. Later, a team comprising Pradeep Meshram, Kelellu Ismail, Priyadarshi Khobragade
Source: NYT
Mar 2, 2008
In fighting for a crucial victory in the Texas contest, the Clintons are drawing from a deep network of friendships that was formed 36 years ago, when they were in their mid-20s, not yet married and working around the clock as volunteers for Mr. McGovern’s campaign.
Source: NYT
Mar 2, 2008
In “Russia’s Capitalist Revolution” (Peterson Institute, $26.95), Anders Aslund, a Russia analyst (and a former colleague of Mr. Trenin’s), argues that zero credit should go to Russia’s most popular politician, Mr. Putin. On the contrary, Mr. Aslund, who is from Sweden and based in Washington, insists that Russia’s economic breakthrough should be credited to Anatoly B. Chubais, who oversaw the government’s privatization program in the 1990s, when the country lost about 40 percent of its gross do
Source: NYT
Mar 2, 2008
Immigration has a fantastically complicated political history in the United States. It has produced enough populist anger to elect Know Nothing mayors of Chicago, Philadelphia, Washington and San Francisco, all in the 1850s and, more recently, to help Lou Dobbs reinvent his television career and become a best-selling author. But when national politicians have tried to seize on such anger, they have usually failed — and failed quickly. “While immigration has always roiled large sections of the el
Source: Interview with George Edwards in Presidential Studies Quarterly
Mar 1, 2008
PRESIDENT CARTER: Regarding the details, I am still an engineer by thought. You know, when I run my
farm or when I run the Carter Center, I want to know what is going on. When I took on
the personal responsibility, say for the Mideast peace process, I really believed that when
we went to Camp David I knew more about the details than anybody there. I had
mastered the psychological and historical analysis of Begin and Sadat. I knew everything
they had done since they were born that was record
Source: USA Today
Mar 1, 2008
Across the street from the yawning void left when the World Trade Center collapsed on Sept. 11, 2001, sits a center imbued with the memory of the 2,750 people who died there.
The completion of a permanent memorial is at least two years away, and the Tribute Center is the sole space near Ground Zero where a visitor can hear the anxious radio transmissions of a firefighter inside the south tower; see a twisted steel beam from the Trade Center's core; study the ID card of a husband who
Source: Krissy Clark on Weekend America -- American Public Media (APM)
Mar 1, 2008
It's the first weekend of March. February's over, and Black History Month is over too. That's not so important for the Reverend Amos Brown, head of the San Francisco NAACP. He presides over one of the city's oldest African-American churches founded in the gold rush.
Last Sunday, Brown did note the final days of February in his sermon. But it really came to life, not when he talked about the end of Black History Month. His sermon came to life when he talked about the end of something
Source: http://www.newdeal75.org/whycelebrate.html
Mar 1, 2008
[Why the celebration?]
To heighten public awareness and appreciation of America's New Deal experience, and its enduring legacy and relevance today.
Want to learn about the many New Deal programs and what the New Deal did for the people of America during the 1930s and 1940s? Visit the FDR Center's New Deal summary section to learn all about the New Deal.
Source: McClatchy
Mar 1, 2008
El Salvador's President Tony Saca , a close U.S. ally, can scarcely contain his frustration.
He calls U.S. politicians ''shortsighted'' for failing to reform U.S. immigration laws. He says Latin American populism is ''a pendulum swing toward disaster'' that deserves more U.S. attention....
President Bush has increased aid to Latin America by record amounts and visited Latin America more than any of his predecessors, but his legacy may be the biggest loss of U.S. influe
