Free Republic

It's official. When, in hundreds of years, the future of humanity scours the U.S. Library of Congress for clues as to how primitively we lived back in the early 21st century, the jive-talking granny in "Airplane!" could very well be integral to the study.

The chairmen of the House and Senate foreign relations committees—Representative Howard Berman (D-Calif) and Senator John Kerry (D-Mass), respectively—are demanding the librarians at the Law Library of Congress to suppress a report on the Honduran crisis. The problem with the report is that it concludes that the removal of former Honduran President Manuel Zelaya was carried out in accordance with that country’s constitution. “This report directly contradicts the President’s position on this crisis,” Berman pointed out. “It creates an air of confusion regarding US policy on this matter. On matters of foreign policy, this nation must speak with one voice...

WASHINGTON -- The chairmen of the House and Senate foreign relations committees are asking the Law Library of Congress to retract a report on the military-backed coup in Honduras that they charge is flawed and “has contributed to the political crisis that still wracks” the country. The request, by Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass. and Rep. Howard Berman, D-Calif., has sparked cries of censorship from Republicans who say the Democrats don't like what the August report said: that the government of Honduras had the authority to remove President Manuel Zelaya from office. Zelaya has been holed up at the Brazilian embassy...

A month ago, the Law Library of Congress reviewed the removal of Manuel Zelaya from his post as President of Honduras, an act that the Obama administration called a “coup” and demanded reversed for its illegality. To the embarrassment of the White House and State Department, the Congressional body determined that Honduras acted lawfully in removing Zelaya for his crimes against their constitution, although they determined that his exile broke Honduran law. Now John Kerry wants the Law Library to retract its findings, apparently trying to rewrite history to hide the facts of the case:

Senior congressional Democrats want a report on the ouster of Honduran president Manuel Zelaya to be retracted. Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Rep. Howard Berman (D-Calif.) made the demand in a letter dated Tuesday to James Billington, the Librarian of Congress. They asked the Law Library of Congress to withdraw and correct the August 2009 report titled “Honduras: Constitutional Issues.” “The report, which has contributed to the political crisis that still wracks Honduras, contains factual errors and is based on a flawed legal analysis that has been refuted by experts from the United States, the Organization of American States, and...

Twenty-five culturally significant recordings — including a 70-year-old radio broadcast of Marian Anderson's recital at the Lincoln Memorial, Dylan Thomas reading of "A Child's Christmas in Wales" and Winston Churchill's post-World War II speech that coined the term Iron Curtain — will be preserved in a special sound archive. Every year the Librarian of Congress selects sound recordings to include in the National Recording Registry. This year's batch, being announced Wednesday, also includes signature performances from several artists such as Etta James' "At Last!," The Who's "My Generation" and Mel Brooks and Carl Reiner doing their 2000-year-old man routine. The...

Conservatives are jumping on author Stephen King for his remarks at a recent Library of Congress event...

The Selected Civil War Photographs Collection contains 1,118 photographs. Most of the images were made under the supervision of Mathew B. Brady, and include scenes of military personnel, preparations for battle, and battle after-effects. The collection also includes portraits of both Confederate and Union officers, and a selection of enlisted men. An additional two hundred autographed portraits of army and navy officers, politicians, and cultural figures can be seen in the Civil War photograph album, ca. 1861-65. (James Wadsworth Family Papers). The full album pages are displayed as well as the front and verso of each carte de visite, revealing...

President Bush introduced conservative TV commentator and radio talk show host, and FReeper [until, as I read on Free Republic, Jim Robinson, in anticipation of the announcement, suspended Tony's FR account] Tony Snow as his new press secretary. The president briefed members of Congress at the WH on the war on terror. The First Couple met with the 2006 National and State Teachers of the Year. Secretary of State Rice Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld arrived in Iraq today for an unscheduled visit with new Iraqi leaders. Part of the visit is a show of support for the country's new leadership....

PARIS, April 9 - As president of the French National Library, Jean-Noël Jeanneney has good reason to feel safe from the frequent incursions of American popular culture into contemporary French life. With its collection of 13 million books, the library is a reassuring symbol of the durability of French literature and thought. Yet Mr. Jeanneney is not one to lower his guard. He grew alarmed last December when he read that Google planned to scan 15 million English-language books and make them available as digital files on the Web. In his view, the move would further strengthen American power to...

WASHINGTON — Civil War buffs are getting access to a treasure trove of information — thousands of original maps and diagrams of battles and campaigns between 1861 and 1865, all posted on the Internet. The Library of Congress is posting 2,240 maps and charts and 76 atlases and sketchbooks, while The Virginia Historical Society and the Library of Virginia are adding about 600 items. Much of the collection is online now; the rest will be by the spring. The items depict troop positions and movements, as well as fortifications. There also are reconnaissance maps, sketches and coastal charts and theater-of-war...

Last June at their annual convention, the American Library Association was presented with two resolutions concerning the jailing of 14 private librarians in Castro’s Cuba. Because it “lacked sufficient information,” the ALA delayed its decision until January. And then it refused to act, even on its own toothless resolution which called on Castro to “respect human rights,” but did not demand that the jailed librarians be set free. These brave souls had been thrown into Castro’s prisons for the “crime” of collecting books and making them available free to the public. Of course their real crime was including such classic...

President Bush spoke at the new Library of Congress exhibit, "Churchill and the Great Republic." Open Feb. 5 through June 26, 2004, the exhibit marks Winston Churchill's contributions to democracy and his relationship with the United States. Winston Churchill III and his family attended. Text of remarks regarding Sir Winston, and the War on Terror. Laura Bush spoke at St. Joseph's Hospital in Savannah, GA about The Heart Truth campaign. The First Lady visited with 20 of Savannah's heart disease survivors and called on Americans, especially women, to learn more about heart disease and ways to prevent it. She asked...

Press Release (http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/031105/lnw015_1.html) Source: Library of Congress Library of Congress Announces Winner of First John W. Kluge Prize for Lifetime Achievement in the Humanities and Social Sciences Wednesday November 5, 11:13 am ET WASHINGTON, Nov. 5 /PRNewswire/ -- The Librarian of Congress, Dr. James H. Billington, announced today the award of the first John W. Kluge Prize for Lifetime Achievement in the Human Sciences to Leszek Kolakowski. Professor Kolakowski, who now resides in Oxford, England, was born in Radom, Poland in 1927, is a philosopher focused on important questions, an historian of human thought, an essayist of enormous range, and...

WASHINGTON - The American Civil War consumed at least 620,000 lives over more than 1,400 days and has been scrutinized, discussed and interpreted ever since.The war has captured popular imagination and marched into the domain of novels, drama, art, film and television documentaries. There are Civil War reenactments not only on the sites of battles but in places where battles were never fought. Scholars spend their careers studying and writing about the war and the people who lived through it.Now, the Library of Congress, the repository of millions of Civil War letters, photographs, books, diaries, drawings, and war maps, sets...

May 21, 2002 The United States Copyright Office on Tuesday rejected an arbitration panel ruling on Webcasting royalty rates, a decision that brought smiles to the face of Internet radio executives nationwide. In a brief note posted on its Web site, the Librarian of Congress rejected the recommendation by the Copyright Arbitration Royalty Panel (CARP) that would have set royalty fees at 14/100 of a cent per performance, a price tag denounced by Webcasters as prohibitive. "The Register of Copyrights recommends, and the Librarian agrees, that the CARP's determination must be rejected. A final decision will be issued no...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A member of the U.S. House of Representatives and the head of the Library of Congress brokered an 11th-hour deal to save a unique collection of 2 million Russian books from an incinerator.quot;It is a win-win for everybody,quot; Igor Kalageorgi, owner of the Victor Kamkin bookstore in the Washington suburb of Rockville, Maryland, said of the deal Monday that won his shop a temporary reprieve from eviction and kept his books from being discarded.quot;There will be no book burning and the books will be found a home,quot; Kalageorgi added.The bookstore in was founded in 1953 by Victor...