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: WaPo
January 17, 2009
Now we get to hear Barack Obama give an inaugural address: seen from the Mall, from bleachers, from a distant seat in a winter tree (weather permitting), he will be another in a long history of tiny humans up there, bustling around against the shoulder-y bulk of the Capitol....
Analysts of Obama's oratory cite the influence of African American preaching tradition, but the influence is older, rooted like a mangrove in the swamp of the nervous system.
"It's about the
Source: WaPo
January 18, 2009
ABOARD THE INAUGURAL TRAIN, Jan. 17 -- On the final leg of a two-year road trip, Barack Obama rode into Washington on Saturday in an antique caboose with the contented look of a man convinced he was arriving at his rightful destination.
A slow-rolling special Amtrak train carrying the president-elect, his family and his closest friends and advisers departed Philadelphia at noon and pulled into Union Station 6 1/2 hours later. It was part of the journey that will take him to the Whit
Source: BBC News
January 16, 2009
Carolyn McKinstry was almost killed in a racist church bombing in
segregated Alabama in the 1960s. The BBC's Matthew Price asks her what the
forthcoming inauguration of America's first African-American president,
Barack Obama, means to her.
Carolyn McKinstry was on her way through the church to its office when she
saw the four girls through the open door to the washroom."Good morning," she said, and went upstairs.
When she reached the top, the phone rang. Normally there woul
Source: BBC
January 17, 2009
The birthplace of Victorian explorer Henry Morton Stanley is being asked if it wants to honour him with a memorial.
Stanley was born in Denbigh, Denbighshire, and also lived as a child in a workhouse in nearby St Asaph.
He is best known for finding the missing explorer David Livingstone in east Africa in 1871, greeting him with the words, "Dr Livingstone, I presume?"
Despite his Denbighshire connections, Stanley has never been commemorated in t
Source: BBC
January 17, 2009
One of the UK's largest hauls of Iron Age gold coins has been found in Suffolk.
The 824 so-called staters were found in a broken pottery jar buried in a field near Wickham Market using a metal detector.
Jude Plouviez, of the Suffolk County Council Archaeological Service, said the coins dated from 40BC to AD15.
They are thought to have been minted by predecessors of the Iceni Queen Boudicca.
Source: Lee White at the website of the National Coalition for History (NCH)
January 15, 2009
On January 14, 2009, the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) opened more than 150 cubic feet of records of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States, known as the 9/11 Commission, an independent, bipartisan commission created by Congress. The records that were released represent 35% of the Commission’s archived textual records.
NARA has posted the released Memoranda for the Record (MFRs) online. The MFR series contains summaries of 709 inter
Source: CBS
January 17, 2009
As Barack Obama prepares to become the first African American U.S. president, Russ Mitchell profiles four you men who stood up for their rights at the height of the Civil Rights Movement.
Source: CBS
January 17, 2009
Barack Obama's arrival in Washington by train today harkens back to the inaugural White House trip of the former President who is Obama's political idol: Abraham Lincoln. In 1861, our 16th President rode the rails through New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania en route to the capital.
"He called it 'my circuitous journey,'" says Lincoln biographer Harold Holzer, an author or editor of 33 books about Lincoln, including his recently published "Lincoln: President-Elect.
Source: http://www.dailypress.com
January 16, 2009
A grand jury this week indicted a Confederate soldier who shot a Union fighter last September during a re-enactment.
An indictment has been issued charging a Virginia Beach Civil War re-enactor with reckless handling of a firearm — a misdemeanor — while filming a Civil War documentary at Heritage Park last September, said Commonwealth's Attorney Wayne Farmer.
Although the indictment is not sealed, he declined to identify the man Thursday because the warrant had not yet
Source: NYT
January 16, 2009
Just 14 months ago, at his confirmation hearing, Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey frustrated and angered some senators by refusing to state that waterboarding, the near-drowning technique used on three prisoners by the Central Intelligence Agency, is in fact torture.
This week, at his confirmation hearing, Eric H. Holder Jr., the attorney general-designate, did not hesitate to express a clear view. He noted that waterboarding had been used to torment prisoners during the Inquisit
Source: Bloomberg News
January 17, 2009
“Everyone wants to be Lincoln,” says Harold Holzer, who has written or edited more than 20 books on Lincoln and the Civil War. “Is Obama overdoing it? Maybe.”
For most of the 144 years since Lincoln’s death, presidents of all political persuasions have tried to enlist Lincoln’s reputation for honesty and courage in support of their own ambitions. Leaders “see in Lincoln’s suffering validation of the criticism they have to endure,” Holzer says.
Still, the election of Ame
Source: AP
January 17, 2009
Barack Obama has said he's standing on the shoulders of George Hickman and his trailblazing colleagues.
Now Hickman and friends will join Obama as he becomes president Tuesday.
The 84-year-old Hickman is one of the original Tuskegee Airmen, the country's first black military pilots and ground crew, who fought in World War II. They returned home to discrimination, exclusion from victory parades — and, as Hickman recalls, the humiliation of being pushed off sidewalks in the Sou
Source: AP
January 16, 2009
The news release didn't say who Mark Ndesandjo was. Nor did the posters and e-mails promoting the concert Friday in this southern Chinese boomtown where he played piano to raise money for orphans.
But the 200 or so people who showed up for the fundraiser at a posh hotel resort knew the man in a Chinese-style brown silk shirt was the half brother of President-elect Barack Obama. They had a rare encounter with Ndesandjo, who has been dodging the media since his family ties were made
Source: Gettysburg Times
January 9, 2009
The oldest building at the 6,000-acre Gettysburg Battlefield is getting a facelift following years of deterioration.
Gettysburg National Military Park crews began disassembling the historic Patterson House this week in preparation to restore the 146-year-old log home.
“The William Patterson house is the oldest building within the boundaries of Gettysburg National Military Park,” spokeswoman Katie Lawhon said Thursday. “The building retains a high level of integrity to
Source: Press Release--UCLA website
January 13, 2009
Diversity is a double-edged sword, making individuals less likely to be altruistic than they might be in a more homogeneous setting but also inspiring them to scale new intellectual heights and to explore new horizons, argue two UCLA economists in a new book.
"People enjoy being around people they can relate to, and they are uncomfortable with diversity," said Matthew Kahn, a co-author of "Heroes and Cowards: The Social Face of War," which will be published Jan.
Source: http://www.eveningsun.com
January 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
January 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: BBC News
January 17, 2009
Thousands of people are expected to take part in global celebrations marking the 800th anniversary of Cambridge University.
A specially-commissioned light show charting the university's history will start the celebrations later.
Church bell-ringers around the world will also simultaneously play a new piece composed for the occasion.
The university, which has produced more Nobel Prize winners than any other institution, has organised a number of events throu
Source: NYT
January 15, 2009
For Japan, the crowning of Hiromu Nonaka as its top leader would have been as significant as America’s election of its first black president.
Despite being the descendant of a feudal class of outcasts, who are known as buraku and still face social discrimination, Mr. Nonaka had dexterously occupied top posts in Japan’s governing party and served as the government’s No. 2 official. The next logical step, by 2001, was to become prime minister. Allies urged him on.
But not
Source: CNN
January 17, 2009
To kick off the inauguration, President-elect Barack Obama is following the train route Saturday that his political hero Abraham Lincoln took to assume his presidency.
The 137-mile journey from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Washington, D.C., retraces the train route taken by Lincoln in 1861.
Before boarding the train, Obama attended a town hall meeting in Philadelphia, where he implored Americans to commit to a new declaration of independence -- from ideology and bigot
