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 frontpage
Jan 23, 2007
At the northwest corner of Central Park, construction is under way on Frederick Douglass Circle, a $15.5 million project honoring the escaped slave who became a world-renowned orator and abolitionist.
Beneath an eight-foot-tall sculpture of Douglass, the plans call for a huge quilt in granite, an array of squares, a symbol in each, supposedly part of a secret code sewn into family quilts and used along the Underground Railroad to aid slaves. Two plaques would explain this.
Source: NYT
Jan 23, 2007
Even as more commentators on both the left and the right are using the adjective “incompetent” to describe the administration of George W. Bush, historians like Douglas Brinkley, Sean Wilentz and Eric Foner have begun to argue that Mr. Bush is in contention for the title of worst president in history, citing reasons like the metastasizing war in Iraq, a ballooning deficit, the mishandling of Hurricane Katrina and a widening credibility gap.
Yet in a lively new book on the Supreme Co
Source: NYT
Jan 23, 2007
The public financing system for presidential campaigns, a post-Watergate initiative hailed for decades as the best way to rid politics of the corrupting influence of money, may have quietly died over the weekend.
Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York became the first candidate since the program began in 1976 to forgo public financing for both the primary and the general election because of the spending limits that come with the federal money. By declaring her confidence that sh
Source: AP
Jan 22, 2007
The United States has drafted a U.N. resolution condemning the denial of the Holocaust, a spokesman said Monday, a month after Iran provoked widespread anger by holding a conference casting doubt on the Nazi genocide of Jews during World War II.
According to a copy of the draft made available to The Associated Press, the proposed resolution urges all member states to "reject any denial of the Holocaust," saying that "ignoring the historical fact of these terrible eve
Source: Guardian
Jan 22, 2007
Nearly half of Britons believe a Holocaust could erupt in the UK, according to a YouGov survey. The poll of 2,400 Britons, released to coincide with Holocaust Memorial Day on January 27, found that 41% of people thought another Holocaust was possible and 36% believed most people would do nothing to stop it. The Holocaust Memorial Day Trust's chairman, Stephen Smith, described the findings as "alarming". The survey also found that 79% were unaware that black people were persecuted by th
Source: Guardian
Jan 22, 2007
A specialist team of former detectives has begun re-examining evidence from Northern Ireland's most controversial killings - those that allegedly involved the security forces.
The new unit within the police's Historical Enquiries Team (HET) will re-assess murders where there is suspicion of past collusion between soldiers, police officers and paramilitary gunmen.
Source: Times Online (UK)
Jan 22, 2007
Saddam Hussein’s followers are planning a museum at the former dictator’s grave, amid concern that a Baathist shrine and rumours of a posthumous autobiography will perpetuate a cult of martyr around him.
Saddam’s tribe say that exhibits will include photographs and the coat, white shirt and shoes he wore at his execution, with other documents and belongings returned to the family by the Iraqi Government.
But it is suggestions of a book, which publishers said last nigh
Source: Dallas Morning News
Jan 22, 2007
The University of Dallas, the little Catholic campus that had big hopes of hosting the Bush presidential library, dropped out of the race Monday as signs increasingly point to Southern Methodist University as the winner.
UD leaders played up the positives.
"It's not a failure. Instead, we think this is a tremendous success story for us," UD President Frank Lazarus said at a news conference. "This process has propelled us onto the national stage, and our u
Source: Inside Higher Ed
Jan 22, 2007
Professors are all Democrats, except those who are communists. Professors all hate Bush. Professors favor like-minded students and love converting those who love God, country and the president. You’ve read all the claims and more, in right-leaning blogs and columns. Frequently, these claims are based on studies — many have been released in the last two years — of professors. Party registration is documented, or professors respond to surveys, or syllabus content is rated.
A new study
Source: Secrecy News, written by Steven Aftergood, is published by the Federation of American Scientists
Jan 22, 2007
The Director of the Congressional Research Service last week
issued a revised agency policy on"Interacting with the Media"
that warns CRS analysts about the"very real risks" associated
with news media contacts and imposes new restrictions on
speaking to the press.
"CRS staff must report within 24 hours all on-the-record
interactions with any media to their supervisor, including the
name of the reporter, media affiliation, date, time, and detailed
notes on the matters discussed or to b
Source: Bloomberg News
Jan 22, 2007
George W. Bush came to power in 2001 vowing to make his mark on history by overhauling taxes, pensions and schools. Instead, an item not on the original agenda -- the war in Iraq -- may consign him to the bottom tier of U.S. leaders.
That's the view of a number of historians and presidential scholars, who say that unless Bush's decision to inject some 20,000 more troops succeeds in quelling sectarian violence, he risks joining the ranks of such poorly regarded American leaders as Ja
Source: Payvand's Iran News
Jan 22, 2007
The US Federal Court held a hearing yesterday about the ancient Persian tablets loaned by Iran to the University of Chicago in the 1930s following the quarrel after a previous judgment authorized the plaintiff to auction off the invaluable Persian relics.According to William Harms, the press contact of Chicago University, the results of Federal Court Case Jan. 19 on the Persian Tablets involving the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago were as follows:
Source: AZ Daily Sun
Jan 22, 2007
On the floors of the House and Senate, in committee hearings and news conferences since the president's Jan. 10 announcement, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle and both sides of the war debate have repeatedly invoked America's longest war.Opponents use the vocabulary of the Vietnam War as they talk of opposing an escalation that they consider as divisive as those pushed by Presidents Johnson and Nixon in the 1960s and early 1970s. And supporters of the president warn of r
Source: NYT
Jan 22, 2007
Two years before the next president is inaugurated and a full year before the first vote is cast, the contest for the White House is off to a breathtakingly fast start, exposing an ever-growing field of candidates to longer, more intensive scrutiny and increasing the amount of money they need to remain viable.
On Sunday, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, Democrat of New York, held her first campaign event, highlighting her focus on health care a day after declaring her plans to run. A
Source: BBC
Jan 21, 2007
ATHENS -- Followers of the 12 Greek Gods, who, according to mythology, ruled the Ancient World from Mount Olympus, have cast a thunderbolt at their Orthodox opponents.
After successfully staging a landmark ceremony at the Temple of Olympian Zeus in Athens, their leader pledged to fight for the right to conduct baptisms, marriages, and funerals according to the rites of the ancient religion.
"We are a legitimate religion. But the authorities don't let us do this,
Source: Reuters
Jan 21, 2007
Oil refineries and power stations pumping acid air pollutants along Mexico's Gulf coast threaten to erase carved stone murals at the pre-Aztec ruined city of El Tajin, a scientist said on Sunday.
Air pollution specialist Humberto Bravo said acid levels in the air around El Tajin, in oil producing Veracruz state, were among the highest in Mexico.
El Tajin's architecture is famous for intricate reliefs, many depicting an ancient Mesoamerican ball game sometimes compared t
Source: US News & World Report
Jan 21, 2007
One of the loveliest attractions in a city with a surfeit of them, the Pont Neuf in Paris is a delicate series of stone arches that spans the Seine. Though its name means "New Bridge," it is in fact the oldest in Paris, having opened the same year that English colonists landed in Jamestown, an ocean away. Bridging, as it does, the old and the new, the Pont Neuf is an apt metaphor for 1607—a year of extraordinary transition around the world.
In Europe, political changes wer
Source: LAT
Jan 21, 2007
As President Bush was preparing to announce plans to send more troops to Iraq earlier this month, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy chose to talk about another conflict.
"In Vietnam, the White House grew increasingly obsessed with victory, and increasingly divorced from the will of the people," the 74-year-old Massachusetts Democrat said in a speech to the National Press Club.
"We all know what happened, though," he continued.
"There was no mi
Source: LAT
Jan 21, 2007
The often-contentious relationship between historic preservationists and private homeowners has flared up here in recent weeks, as activists determined to save the city's distinct architecture face off against Hurricane Katrina victims who can't afford to repair architecturally significant homes — and need a place to live.
On one side are Laureen Lentz and Karen Gadbois, who say it is their "duty" to safeguard the architecture that distinguishes New Orleans: The eclectic
Source: Independent (UK)
Jan 21, 2007
A group of Kalahari Bushmen, one of the oldest tribal societies in the world, have returned to their ancestral hunting grounds after defeating international diamond mining companies and the government of Botswana in an historic court decision.
Forty Bushmen managed to return to the Central Kalahari Game Reserve, in the arid heart of southern Africa, despite a heavy police presence and attempts to persuade them to stay in relocation camps. "Today is the same day for us as Nelso
