Forty years before Democrats nominated their first candidate of color, President Lyndon Johnson told 1968 presidential nominee Hubert Humphrey that he should pick a Japanese-American as his running mate.

It was Sen. Daniel Inouye, who was awarded a silver star in World War II, and who lost an arm in battle.

"He answers Vietnam with that empty sleeve. He answers your problems with Nixon with that empty sleeve. He has that brown face," Johnson said.

Humphrey, though he was one of the Senate's foremost liberals, balked.

"I guess maybe, it's just taking me a little too far, too fast," Humphrey said. "Old, conservative Humphrey."

Modern humans may have evolved more than 80,000 years earlier than previously thought, according to a new study of sophisticated stone tools found in Ethiopia.

The tools were uncovered in the 1970s at the archaeological site of Gademotta, in the Ethiopian Rift Valley. But it was not until this year that new dating techniques revealed the tools to be far older than the oldest known Homo sapien bones, which are around 195,000 years old.

Using argon-argon dating—a technique that compares different isotopes of the element argon—researchers determined that the volcanic ash layers entombing the tools at Gademotta date back at least 276,000 years.

Former President Bill Clinton says he is open to the possibility of a role in the Obama administration but said he otherwise plans to be deferential to both the president and Clinton's wife, the soon-to-be secretary of state.

Clinton could be named as a sort of super-ambassador on a specific issue like India, or on a broad topic like restoring goodwill for the United States abroad. He was deferential to President George W. Bush, accepting assignments on hurricane and tsunami relief in conjunction with the president’s father, former President George H.W. Bush.

The [Obama] family says they expect Michelle Obama's mother, Marian Robinson, to leave her native Chicago early next year and move to Washington to help care for their two daughters — a job she held throughout the presidential campaign.

"If somebody's going to be with these kids other than their parents, it better be me," she told The Boston Globe.

It isn't clear whether Robinson will move into the White House; neither she nor Michelle Obama would comment....

If Robinson moves in this January, she won't be the first. Several mothers-in-law and fathers-in-law have hauled their steamer trunks up the stairs of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. over the past 200 years or so. But if Robinson aspires to be the Most Outrageous White House In-Law, she had better take a number.

The in-laws through history

It turns out that the Kennedyesque notion of a small, attractive nuclear family living in the White House is so late-20th-century. Before that, presidents routinely invited extended family members to stay at the White House for a month or two or longer, says William Bushong, staff historian for the non-profit White House Historical Association.

Andrew Jackson "brought just about everybody in his family with him from Tennessee to Washington," he says.

In his more than 12 years in office, Franklin D. Roosevelt practically used the White House as a hotel, Bushong says. "He just loved company." To accommodate their 13 grandchildren, Eleanor Roosevelt had slides, swings and sandboxes built on the South Lawn.

Historians likely would dub Frederick Dent the first extended-stay in-law. Dent, father of Julia Grant and father-in-law of Ulysses S. Grant, was a former planter and was for several years "a fixture at the White House," Bushong says, where he was mostly known for "promising people things he couldn't deliver," such as government contracts.

Most political experts expect the Minnesota election to be decided in the courts or even in the state senate. In short, it's a mess. But it's not that unusual. A look back at some similarly close — and even closer — races provides some lessons on where things might go in the Minnesota contest, the only remaining undecided 2008 Senate race. (Republican Saxby Chambliss thumped Democratic challenger Jim Martin in a Dec. 2 runoff.)

The closest Senate race in history — for an open New Hampshire seat in 1974 — was so tight that the candidates had to hold a second election. After Republican Louis Wyman beat Democrat John Durkin by just 355 votes, a recount gave Durkin the lead — but by only 10 votes, which meant another recount. This count gave the election back to Wyman — by two votes. Durkin asked the Senate — which had a convenient 60-vote Democratic majority — for a review of the results. Despite six weeks of debate, the Senate couldn't resolve the matter, and the two candidates agreed to run all over again. With record turnout, Durkin won by some 27,000 votes — showing how recounts can and do overturn election results.

As for Minnesota history, one notable recount case stands above all others. In the state's 1962 gubernatorial race, incumbent Elmer L. Andersen lost by a narrow margin of less than 200 votes to challenger Karl Rolvaag (out of 1.26 million votes cast). Andersen asked for a recount, which required some 100 teams of ballot reviewers to fan out across the state. The recount took 139 days, and the final tally gave the election to Rolvaag by 91 votes, but not before Andersen had already been sworn in as governor — albeit provisionally. Fortunately for Rolvaag, and for the state, Andersen let his opponent in on official business during the recount waiting period so when Rolvaag took over the reins in March 1963, the transition was smooth and drama-free.

Americans will Friday toast the 75th anniversary of the end of Prohibition, a dry spell that began in 1920 when a constitutional amendment outlawed alcohol throughout the United States.

The nationwide ban on the manufacture, sale, transportation, import and export of intoxicating beverages was brought into law by conservatives for moral and health reasons, and repealed in 1933 on economic grounds.

But to this day, pockets of Prohibition exist in the United States, with entire counties still "dry" and bootleggers still running liquor.

Congressional investigators recently outlined 13 issues for President-elect Barack Obama to focus on without delay. Most are obvious, such as military readiness, homeland security, financial regulation and Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. The 2010 census also made it onto the urgent 13. It deserves to be there.

As with any huge undertaking, the census requires years of planning, but preparations have been systematically sidetracked during the Bush years. The most plausible explanation, beyond incompetence, is that the administration aimed to make it even more difficult than usual to count hard-to-count groups, like minorities, immigrants and the poor, who tilt Democratic. Their numbers, if accurately gauged, could reshape electoral maps.

The White House, with the early support of a Republican-led Congress, shortchanged and delayed financing for the Census Bureau. The administration left top bureau positions unfilled for long stretches and allowed political judgment to dominate bureau management, which damaged morale and impaired performance.

Persepolis was the magnificent capital of ancient Iran, when that country ruled most of the civilized world, from Egypt to Central Asia and from Greece to Northern India. (Yes, some of the later pharaohs were vassals of Iran!)



Now comes exciting news that a joint Italian and Iranian archeological team has found Parsa, the gritty working-class district that lay outside the palace walls, where the artisans lived. The Iranian director, Alireza Askari, said:

" two trial trenches brought to light important evidence which suggests that in the Achaemenid and post-Achaemenid periods the area was dedicated to craft activities. In fact, one of the trial trenches yielded a kiln for pottery making, while the other was characterized by the presence of a large number of successive dump pits extremely rich in pottery shards, bricks, charcoal, and bones. Also for this area, the very promising results of the trial trenches suggest that extensive excavations will be carried out in the next season. Being one of the few stratigraphic excavations to have been carried out in the area of Persepolis for the historic period, this activity will allow a comprehensive and fundamental study of the pottery as well as of the other classes of materials recovered for the historic period from the Achaemenid through the Islamic periods, and thus bring a relevant contribution to the knowledge of everyday life in ancient Fars . . .” '

A constitutional scholar says the new Capitol Visitor Center in Washington, DC, is an extremely biased and historically inaccurate exhibit that "twists and distorts" the Constitution.

The new $621 billion Capitol Visitor Center features an exhibition hall that is dominated by a very large marble wall called "The Wall of Aspirations." Dr. Matthew Spalding of The Heritage Foundation says the exhibit is not about the Constitution's limits on powers delegated to the government, but instead lists aspirations such as unity, freedom, common defense, knowledge, exploration, and general welfare, and then points back to where they are found in the Constitution.

Spalding, director of the Simon Center for American Studies at Heritage, notes those words all appear in the Constitution, but argues they were taken out of context and used to justify much larger activities by Congress.

"The job of Congress, according to the exhibit, is to achieve these aspirations. So the old notion that says Article 1, Section 8 [of the Constitution] lists the powers that Congress has -- these are the things that Congress can do. [But] that old notion is set aside," he contends. "In its place we have this kind of open-ended 'aspirations' which Congress is going to define and achieve. And to get there, they do very selective quoting and...mangle many phrases in the Constitution to get them where they want to go."

The new Visitor Center project was overseen by the Capitol Preservation Commission, which mostly consists of elected officials like House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. Spalding says it is unclear who actually designed the exhibit and wrote the text for it, but he is advising people with complaints about the Visitor Center to contact the Architect of the Capitol, the officer charged with upkeep of the Center and its programs.

When a group of pundits gathered for a recent Oxford-style debate, the proposition alone was provocative: "Bush 43 Is the Worst President of the Past 50 Years." But when you consider that one of the panelists defending President Bush's legacy was his longtime adviser Karl Rove, the night became even more interesting.

For instance, Rove said that President Bush probably would not have gone to war in Iraq if he had known the truth about Saddam Hussein's military capacity. "Absent weapons of mass destruction," Rove said, "I don't think there would have been an invasion."

And when Rove was asked why Osama bin Laden remains at large, Rove replied, "Because he is hiding in a deep, dark cave in a very dark corner of, in all likelihood, Pakistan. And to suggest that not every effort has been made to get him is inaccurate. Every effort has been made to get him, to get at his communications, to get at his allies, to get at his subordinates, to get at his inner circle."

THE distinction between the nations of Britain is more in the eye of the beholder than in our genes.

Over thousands of years the blood spilled in wars between the ruling classes “artificially” created Wales, Scotland, Ireland and England, not the DNA in our blood.

DNA studies show that anyone with a few generations of ancestors who lived in any part of the British Isles is descended from the original inhabitants of Britain.

These people arrived in small numbers from the Iberian peninsular (modern Spain and Portugal), some 8,000 to 9,000 years ago. They provided the bedrock of our modern genetic makeup from John O’Groats to Lands End and from Anglesey to Norwich. The infusions of DNA from Danish, Saxon, Norman and others over the last 2,000 years are now almost insignificant.

Whether we call ourselves English, Welsh, Irish or Scottish, the DNA of the invaders has been diluted by generations of breeding with the native stock, people directly descended from the pioneering Iberian settlers who arrived here after the last Ice Age.

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Juan Cole commentary

Richard Nixon's reputation takes a fresh pounding every time the National Archives releases another batch of audio tapes from his presidency, and today's opening of nearly 200 hours of Nixon White House recordings is no exception.

Again and again, Nixon comes across as ruthless, cynical and profane in conversations with staff members.

Here are some examples:
-- On July 1, 1971, Nixon instructs Chief of Staff H.R. Haldeman to have someone break into the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C.:

"I can't have a high-minded lawyer ... I want a son-of-a-b----. I want someone just as tough as I am. ... We're up against an enemy, a conspiracy that will use any means. We are going to use any means... . Get it done. I want it done. I want the Brookings Institution cleaned out and have it cleaned out in a way that has somebody else take the blame."...

-- On May 18, 1972, Nixon talks to Henry Kissinger about the National Security Adviser's meeting with Ivy League college presidents regarding the war in Vietnam:

NIXON: "The Ivy League presidents? Why, I'll never let those sons-of-b------ in the White House again. Never, never, never. They're finished. The Ivy League schools are finished ... Henry, I would never have had them in. Don't do that again ... They came out against us when it was tough ... Don't ever go to an Ivy League school again, ever. Never, never, never."

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AP: Nixon records show aides dishing dirt on critics

On December 2, 2008, the Nixon Presidential Library released 198 additional hours of Nixon tapes originally recorded between November 1972 and January 1973. With this release, 2,217 hours of tapes have been declassified and released to the public out of a total of approximately 3,700 hours recorded. This release was a sequel to a small release of tapes that occurred on July 11, 2007. For more information on the 2007 release, click here.

The topics discussed on these "Fifth Chron" tapes include the 1972 presidential election, Vietnam peace talks and the "Christmas bombing", foreign policy including the Soviet Union and China, Nixon's cabinet reshuffle in advance of the beginning of his second term, Nixon's interest in renaming or even abolishing the Republican Party and supporting prominent Democrat and former Nixon Secretary of the Treasury John B. Connally as the 1976 Republican presidential nominee, plans for the 1973 policy "the Year of Europe", domestic policy, and others.

nixontapes.org has obtained a copy of this new tape release, and will be soon adding the complete audio, finding aids, and analysis. For those who cannot wait to hear some of the real "gems" in this release, the following are a few samples.

Sample conversation 1: December 10, 1972

In advance of the collapse in peace talks on December 13, President Nixon calls Soviet Ambassador to Washington D.C. Anatoly Dobrynin. Nixon leans heavily on Dobrynin to get a message to Moscow. Nixon requests Soviet intervention with ally North Vietnam in order to save the jeopardized peace talks. Nixon argues that it is in both American and Soviet interests to "remove this irritant" of the Vietnam War. To listen to the audio, click here (mp3, 2.4m).

Sample conversation 2: December 12, 1972

In the Oval Office, Deputy Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs Alexander M. Haig briefs President Nixon on the Paris peace talks, which were in the midst of collapse. Nixon appreciates the tough approach national security advisor Henry Kissinger was taking in the peace talks, noting that the impasse could continue until the end of the month. The following day, Nixon issues an ultimatum that peace negotiations must resume within 72 hours. To listen to the audio, click here (mp3, 2.9m).

Sample conversation 3: December 14, 1972

In the first part of a long Oval Office conversation that included President Nixon, Henry Kissinger, and Alexander Haig, Nixon provides the rationale for the Christmas bombing, a.k.a. Operation Linebacker II, which would begin on December 18. To listen to the audio, click here (mp3, 815k). 

Sample conversation 4: December 14, 1972

In a second excerpt of this same Oval Office conversation, Nixon notes the need to demonstrate toughness with the North Vietnamese, and not to give in to "the other side." To listen to the audio, click here (mp3, 461k).

Sample conversation 5: December 14, 1972

In this final excerpt from this critical conversation, Nixon admonishes Henry Kissinger, that "the press are the enemy, the professors are the enemy." Kissinger points out that he is a professor. When Nixon seems not to notice Kisinger's rebuttal, Kissinger quickly agrees with Nixon about his views on the press. To listen to the audio, click here (mp3, 479k).

Sample conversation 6: December 28, 1972

In a telephone conversation between President Nixon and Henry Kissinger, after ten days of the heaviest bombing since World War II, both men agree that the North Vietnamese were eager to return to the negotiating table. Nixon agrees to cease bombing within 36 hours, which did end the following day. Nixon notes to Kissinger that if necessary, new negotiations should take place with North Vietnam only, and that any agreement reached would then be promulgated with South Vietnam. To listen to the audio, click here (mp3, 9.7m).

Over time, the U.S. Capitol has taken on two very different faces. What was once deemed the back side of the building -- facing the Mall -- became a grand, ceremonial front, with the addition of dramatic stairs, terraces and landscaping that emphasized its prominence on a hill. To the east, the old "front" of the Capitol became, by contrast, more modest, accessible and pastoral. Before ground was broken for the new Capitol Visitor Center in 2000, you could stand on the east side and imagine cows and sheep grazing, as if in the foreground of a romantic landscape painting.

This duality -- grandeur and authority vs. simplicity and openness -- also expressed an ideal of government. To survive, a republic must have authority, tradition and ceremonies. But it must also have its yeoman side, which allows the people to wander the halls of power as equals with their legislators.

The "truth to power" side of the Capitol, the East face, has been demolished by the new Visitor Center, a tragically misconceived and overscale addition, which opens today. The East face has become something entirely new, with a false and slick pomposity created by an impressive promenade over an imposing bridge, which seems to cross a kind of moat. It is a historical and aesthetic jumble, a nonsensical place and a gross disfigurement of one of this country's most important and iconic buildings.

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WaPo News Story: Visitor Center Ready for Its Kickoff Close-Up