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: Foreign Policy in Focus
August 31, 2005
“The Iraq Quagmire” is the most comprehensive accounting of the mounting costs and consequences of the Iraq War on the United States, Iraq, and the world. Among its major findings are stark figures that quantify the continuing of costs since the Iraqi elections, a period that the Bush administration claimed would be characterized by a reduction in the human and economic costs. According to current estimates, the cost of the Iraq War could exceed $700 billion. In current dollars, the Vietnam War
Source: AlterNet
September 8, 2005
In a country littered with nondescript urban sprawl, the picturesque 19th century houses that dotted the United States' southern shores were rare reminders of a bygone era. But now, many of Mississippi's grand beachfront homes, sturdy verandas and steepled churches have simply vanished -- generations of memories obliterated in a single, 12-hour storm.Almost all our old houses have gone. This isn't just a question of financial loss, this is our history that has disappeared,&q
Source: Daily Telegraph (Sydney, Australia)
September 9, 2005
Esteemed writer and historian Donald Horne, who coined Australia"The Lucky Country" has died aged 83.Mr Horne, a staunch republican, wrote The Lucky Country in 1964, questioning many traditional attitudes of Australian society.
He was also the editor of The Bulletin in the early 1960s, and was a long-time academic at the University of New South Wales.
...
He wrote 24 books, including an autobiographical trilogy, three novels and social criticisms,
Source: Los Angeles Times
September 9, 2005
New Orleans archives and personal records are among millions of pages lost or damaged.In the basement of the Civil District Courthouse on Poydras Street, three blocks from the Superdome, water has lapped over 20% of the 60,000 leather-bound books of the New Orleans Notarial Archives. The books contain the records of all property transfers in the city that have occurred in the modern era.
"We don't have deeds in New Orleans," said Stephen P. Bruno, cust
Source: Newsday (NY)
August 31, 2005
Rolling Stone, the magazine that was home for years to Hunter S. Thompson, will publish a note written by the gonzo journalist days before he committed suicide in February.
Douglas Brinkley, the presidential historian who is also Thompson's official biographer, writes that a Feb. 16 note may be Thompson's final written words, The Associated Press reports.
It reads:
"No More Games. No More Bombs. No More Walking. No More Fun. No More Swim
Source: Inside Higher Education
September 8, 2005
A University of Colorado misconduct committee has rejected a set of allegations that were made against Ward Churchill by the family of his late ex-wife. Churchill is once again claiming that he has won a victory, but the most serious charges against him remain alive. The Denver Postreported Wednesday that a faculty review committee had examined and rejected charges that Churchill made inaccurate statements in the preface to a book by Leah Kelly, his ex-wife. Colo
Source: NYT
September 8, 2005
THE barrel of the Confederate 12-pounder howitzer was missing, and so was the saddle on which Jefferson Davis rode into the Mexican War. Four days after Katrina, Patrick Hotard's face was shadowed with exhaustion and dismay as he surveyed what was left of Beauvoir, the beachside Jefferson Davis home and presidential library, where he is the director. He had just arrived from his refuge in Louisiana, and many of his worst fears were being confirmed as he picked through the bricks, giant wafers of
Source: NYT
September 8, 2005
Revolutionary War-era documents, culled from the collections of the State Archives and the State Library, are being preserved, thanks to a $164,000 grant in public and private money through the federal Save America's Treasures program, a national effort to preserve historic structures, documents and works of art. Documents include the secrets British spy John André carried away in his boot."It's time, we feel, to work to bring them back to a condition where
Source: HNN
September 8, 2005
A full week and a half after Katrina hit the Gulf many people remain missing, including both historians and history students. The story unfolds chronologically in all its horror on the blog HNN set up last week to track the missing. Tulane's history department as of last evening had failed to locate eighteen people.
Source: The Australian
September 8, 2005
Academics have been warned to defend themselves against renewed attacks by history warriors as a dispute between traditional and private landowners in western Victoria becomes the focus of a new battleground in the Aboriginal history wars. Monash University Associate Professor Bain Attwood yesterday used the launch of his new book, Telling The Truth About Aboriginal History, to attack history commentator Keith Windschuttle and others he labels the new conservatives.ACADEMICS
Source: Slate
September 8, 2005
This has been the summer of "intelligent design." In August, President Bush endorsed this revamped version of creationism, and this week a Pew Forum poll found that fewer than half of Americans accept Darwin's theory of evolution. This widespread rejection of seemingly established truths has shocked many observers. After all, didn't the Scopes trial resolve this 80 years ago?The anniversary of the "Monkey Trial" provides an occasion to remember that it di
Source: Daily Telegraph (Sydney, Australia)
September 8, 2005
Australia's leaders have slammed the Australian War Memorial's top historian, Peter Stanley, over his controversial claim that Japanese plans to invade Australia in 1942 were a "myth".Australia's leaders have slammed the Australian War Memorial's top historian, Peter Stanley, over his controversial claim that Japanese plans to invade Australia in 1942 were a "myth".
Prime Minister John Howard and Opposition Leader Kim Beazley rejected Dr Stan
Source: Armenian News Network/Groong
September 8, 2005
In letters sent to to the Speakers of parliaments of Switzerland,Poland, Slovakia, Lebanon, Canada, Argentina, Germany, Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Italy, Greece, Uruguay, Sweden, Russian Federation and Venezuela, Turkey's Parliament Speaker, Bulent Arinc expressed sorrow and disappointment about the adoption of resolutions accusing Turkey of carrying out a genocide, and said: "It is unacceptable that the history be used as a tool for political intentions that can cause prejudice agai
Source: MSNBC
September 7, 2005
With rescue operations in New Orleans focused on saving lives and restoring order in the hurricane battered city, little effort has been made so far to catalog the damage to the city’s considerable historic and cultural landmarks. With no official accounting yet available, the best those charged with assessing such things could do is to study satellite photos of the city and rely on eyewitness accounts and bloggers for their information.The hurricane and subsequent flooding
Source: NYT
September 8, 2005
Many curators, archivists and preservation advocates are beginning to tally the losses in the areas hardest hit by the hurricane, even as emergency workers turn to the more essential tasks of gathering the dead and providing supplies. For preservationists in Mississippi no less is at stake than the region's architectural patrimony.
Source: US Newswire
September 8, 2005
At a press conference this morning, Dr. Kenneth Thibodeau, Director of the Electronic Records Archives Program, announced the formation of a high-level committee to advise and make recommendations to Archivist of the United States Allen Weinstein on issues related to the development, implementation and use of the Electronic Records Archives (ERA) system. This committee is named the Advisory Committee on the Electronic Records Archives (ACERA).In making the announcement, Dr.
Source: NYT
September 7, 2005
The Palestinian who masterminded the raid on the 1972 Munich Olympics has complained that the director Steven Spielberg did not seek his expertise in making his new film about the events that led to the deaths of 11 Israeli athletes and the Israeli revenge assassinations that followed, Reuters reported. The planner, Mohammad Daoud, speaking by telephone from an undisclosed location in the Middle East, told Reuters: "If someone really wanted to tell the truth about what happened, he should t
Source: NYT
September 7, 2005
School districts from Maine to Washington State were enrolling thousands of students from New Orleans and other devastated Gulf Coast districts yesterday in what experts said could become the largest student resettlement in the nation's history. Schools welcoming the displaced students must not only provide classrooms, teachers and textbooks, but under the terms of President Bush's education law must also almost immediately begin to raise their scholastic achievement unless some provisions of th
Source: Romanesko
September 7, 2005
The Federal Emergency Management Agency has rejected requests from journalists to accompany rescue boats as they go out to search for storm victims. Also, the agency says: "We have requested that no photographs of the deceased be made by the media."
Source: OpenTheGovernment.org
September 7, 2005
A new publication from the coalition OpenTheGovernment.org provides some quantitative benchmarks that confirm and document the rise in official secrecy. Metrics cited in the report range from formal classification -- which is at a record high -- to the fraction of federal advisory committee meetings closed to the public -- nearly two-thirds.
