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: Foxnews
January 15, 2009
President Bush will give his farewell address Thursday night.
President Bush's farewell speech is more than a goodbye to the nation that elected him twice. It is his last chance in office to define his presidency in his own, unfiltered terms -- a mission that will keep his fire burning even after he fades off to a quieter life.
Bush will say goodbye to the country Thursday night. He will follow the script of Presidents Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter and
Source: Times (UK)
January 15, 2009
1066 is more famous, 1415 (the year of Agincourt) more Shakespearean and 1939 more globally significant. But there is another year whose impact on every area of British life is becoming ever more apparent: 1759.
Its legacy echoes through today’s headlines, with the collapse of the ceramics firm Waterford Wedgwood (founded 1759). The latest Guinness’ advertising campaign (“17:59. It’s Guinness time”) refers to the date when Arthur Guinness built a brewery for stout in Dublin.
Source: Deutsche Welle
January 14, 2009
Italy's highest court has published its written judgment ordering Germany to pay compensation to the families of Italian World War Two victims of Nazi war crimes. The Supreme Court of Cassation in Rome made its ruling last October.
But Germany last month instituted proceedings against Italy at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague, claiming Italy was failing to respect its jurisdictional immunity as a sovereign state.
German authorities have expressed c
Source: History Today
January 14, 2009
Restoration work has started on one of London’s most ancient buildings and home of the first Parliaments. The English Heritage project started its conservation this week (Jan 13th) on the weathered exterior of Westminster Abbey’s Chapter House. The repairs on the Chapter House, which dates from the 12th century and held the King’s Great Council in 1257, are to be completed by 2010. Tim Reeve, Properties Director for English Heritage, said: ‘The Chapter House is a building of international import
Source: BBC
January 13, 2009
At three metres in height, it was thought moa grazed on trees and bushes, but the faeces turned up evidence only of tiny herbs.
The study also showed that moa diets were significantly different to those of the species introduced later.
The research appears in the current issue of Quaternary Science Reviews.
Alan Cooper, director of the Australian Centre for Ancient DNA and senior author on the study, has been collating DNA from a range of different speci
Source: BBC
January 15, 2009
Both are outsiders ill-at-ease among the Paris elite; they are control-freaks who interfere in every corner of government; they are obsessed by image and see the media as a vital tool of power.
One way or another, they both dream of taking the reins of Europe.
Comparisons have been made before between Napoleon Bonaparte and his 26th successor as French head of state. But now they have been given the official imprimatur of the country's leading political commentator.
Source: BBC
January 15, 2009
Writing in the Guardian, Mr Miliband said the idea had unified disparate "terrorist groups" against the West.
He said the right response to the threat was to champion law and human rights - not subordinate it.
Mr Miliband repeated the views in a speech in Mumbai, India, the scene of attacks by gunmen last year.
Mr Miliband's warning comes five days before the end of US President George Bush's administration, which has led the so-called "wa
Source: CNN
January 14, 2009
WASHINGTON -- A federal judge has ordered the Bush White House to preserve its e-mails, just days before a new administration takes over.
The court's preservation notice Wednesday stems from a ongoing lawsuit by private groups over allegedly missing electronic messages, and allegations the White House failed to properly monitor its internal communications among staff.
It has been a thorny legal and political issue for outgoing Bush officials, who are in the process of t
Source: Email posted with permission by IraqiCrisis
January 14, 2009
Dear Chuck,
[A]bout ten days ago the minister of tourism and antiquities in Baghdad, stormed the Iraq
museum together with his armed body guards with their weapons of course, he started
threatening every body and ordered that the Iraq museum must be opened by the middle of
this February, because he had given his word for the media !! ???, after that Dr.
Amira Edan, the chairperson at the SBAH, was asked by some journalists about the
ministers' order, she told them that it was not a goo
Source: TheDailyBeast.com (summary of AP story)
January 14, 2009
Bush may be out of office next week, but the torture issue isn't going away. In an interview with Bob Woodward, Susan J. Crawford, the official charged with deciding whether to bring Guantanamo Bay detainees to trial, says that the United States tortured Mohammed Al Qahtani, the so-called "20th hijacker" from September 11. "His treatment met the legal definition of torture," she says. The techniques used against Al Qahtani included sustained isolation, sleep deprivation, sexu
Source: Telegraph (UK)
January 14, 2009
Drawings of the moon completed by British cartographer Thomas Harriot and pre-dating Galileo are to go on public display.
The 17th century "moon maps" by Harriot appear to reveal that the Englishman preceded the famous Italian scientist in viewing the moon through a telescope.
One of Harriot's drawings is dated July 26 1609, six months prior to Galileo's well documented achievement in December 1609.
The lunar drawings by Harriot will form part of an exh
Source: Telegraph (UK)
January 14, 2009
Ancient Persians were the first to use chemical weapons when they gassed Roman soldiers with toxic fumes 2,000 years ago, researchers have discovered.
Archeologists have found the oldest evidence of chemical warfare yet after studying the bodies of 20 Roman soldiers' found underground in Syria 70 years ago.
Clues left at the scene revealed the Persians were lying in wait as the Romans dug a tunnel during a siege – then pumped in toxic gas – produced by sulphur crystal
Source: LAT
January 14, 2009
Barack Obama will be sworn into office on Tuesday -- just weeks before the bicentennial of Abraham Lincoln's birth. Obama's inaugural theme, "A New Birth of Freedom," has, fittingly, been drawn from his fellow Illinoisan's Gettysburg Address, and he's supposed to be sworn in using Lincoln's own Bible. The inaugural menu is based on what supposedly were some of Lincoln's favorite foods, and even the inaugural china is a replica of that used in the Lincoln White House. Despite these conn
Source: Politico.com
January 14, 2009
President Bush is naming a high-powered staff to launch him on a productive post-presidency that, at least at first, will be busy behind the scenes and quiet on the surface.
The Office of George W. Bush will be in Dallas, near his presidential library at Southern Methodist University.
The president plans to write a book, give speeches, help build his presidential library and start a “freedom institute” to prolong his legacy, with a special emphasis on his “freedom age
Source: Rasmussen Reports
January 13, 2009
President George W. Bush in a final press conference on Monday acknowledged he made some mistakes in the White House, but most Americans – at least for now – are a lot more critical than that.
Fifty-seven percent (57%) of Americans say Bush is one of the five worst presidents in U.S. history, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey. Just six percent (6%) say he was one of the five best, and 34% place him somewhere in between.
Republicans aren’t mu
Source: Washington Post
January 14, 2009
President-elect Barack Obama will attend a private prayer service on the morning of his inauguration at the historic St. John's Episcopal Church on Lafayette Square, according to the Presidential Inauguration Committee.
Kevin Griffis, spokesman for the inauguration committee, said yesterday that the prayer service will not be open to the public.
St. John's, across Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House, is known as the "Church of the Presidents." Since James
Source: Washington Post
January 15, 2009
A rare signed copy of the Emancipation Proclamation has been lent to the National Museum of American History by Washington financier David M. Rubenstein.
The print, one of 48 signed by President Abraham Lincoln, was purchased by Rubenstein a few months ago in a private sale. The museum is displaying the Rubenstein copy in a permanent exhibition called "The American Presidency: A Glorious Burden."
Lincoln artifacts are coveted commodities right now as the count
Source: http://www.laobserved.com
January 12, 2009
Former president Richard Nixon began his memoir with the line "I was born in the house my father built." Well, in 1959 his mother told the Los Angeles Times he was born in a hospital.
Source: Politico
January 14, 2009
President Bush said Tuesday night that the nadir of his presidency was “being called a racist” in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
“I think being called a racist because of Katrina was a low point,” Bush said in an interview with CNN’s Larry King.
In the days immediately following the disaster, Bush came under fire for what many characterized as a slow federal response to aiding victims, especially in the heavily African-American, Lower Ninth Ward neighborhood of New
Source: Salon
January 13, 2009
A flier headlined "Why I hate Black History Month" that was sent home with St. Louis-area schoolchildren has been tweaked after a handful of complaints.
Organizers say they were trying to emphasize the importance of learning about black history all year long, not just in February.
The revised flier is titled, "Why I LOVE Black History Month."
The fliers were sent home last week with students at Jackson Park Elementary School in Universit
