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AUSTIN, Texas — The Civil War ended nearly 142 years ago, for most of the country anyway, but bitter battles over how zealously that war should be remembered are erupting in Austin, the Texas capital. First, rock musician Ted Nugent wore a T-shirt featuring the Confederate battle flag — a banner sometimes employed by Southern white-supremacist groups — at the Jan. 16 inaugural ball for Texas Gov. Rick Perry, prompting criticism from civil-rights groups. A few days later, the state's elected land commissioner, arguing for a more "balanced" view of history, marked Confederate Heroes Day — an official state holiday...

Just in time for President's Day, a new Gallup poll finds Abraham Lincoln now topping Ronald Reagan as the public's idea of the greatest U.S. president ever. John F. Kennedy edges Bill Clinton for the #3 spot, with Franklin D. Roosevelt coming in at number five. George Washington can do no better than sixth. Gallup notes that respondents tend to favor presidents of later vintage. Reagan had bested traditional leader Lincoln in the previous poll, in 2005, in the aftermath of the former's death. Eighteen percent of Americans today name Lincoln as the greatest U.S. president. He is closely followed...

Breaking news, but it was expected.

Excerpt - Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi endorsed hawkish Shinzo Abe, the front-runner in the ruling party leadership race, as his successor, Kyodo News agency reported Saturday. Koizumi said he will vote for Abe, serving chief Cabinet secretary in his government, in the Sept. 20 election to pick a new leader of the Liberal Democratic Party, Kyodo reported from Helsinki, Finland, where the prime minister is attending the Asia-Europe Meeting. Koizumi, who took office in April 2001, has said he will step down when his current term as ruling party head ends at the end of September. The new LDP leader...

ALLENTOWN, Pa. (AP) - July 19, 2006 - A University of Illinois researcher had discovered a fourth copy of a rare letter Abraham Lincoln had written by to the nation's governors in 1861. The letter John Lupton found Tuesday in the Lehigh County Historical Society's holdings was one Lincoln wrote as part of an unsuccessful ratification process for a constitutional amendment Congress adopted during the term of his predecessor, President James Buchanan, that would have made slavery the law of the land. The president remembered for abolishing slavery had been willing to push the amendment as "kind of a carrot...

Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe has widened his lead over former top government spokesman Yasuo Fukuda as the voters' preferred candidate to succeed Junichiro Koizumi as prime minister, according to a Kyodo News survey. Nearly half, or 48.1 percent, of those who responded to a nationwide telephone survey favored Abe, up 2.5 percentage points from a survey conducted last month. Fukuda lost 1.9 points and had a support rate of 22.4 percent. He now trails Abe by 25.7 points. Analysts believe Abe's increased media exposure, particularly following the recent missile tests by North Korea, has worked to his advantage, while support...

DEBUNKING CINDY SHEEHANHEAR ABE LINCOLN/JOHNNY CASH + PBS' NEIL CONANby Mia T, 8.31.05 (viewing movie requires Flash Player 7, available HERE)   "You tell me the truth. You tell me that my son died for oil. You tell me that my son died to make your friends rich. You tell me my son died to spread the cancer of Pax Americana, imperialism in the Middle East."--Cindy Sheehan "And if you think I won't say bulls**t to the President, I say move on, cause I'll say what's on my mind."--Cindy Sheehan   The trusty triad's half-truths, exaggerations and outright lies,...

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. - An organizer of a planned memorial to honor Confederate soldiers who died at an Illinois prison camp says the rebel flag will be displayed at the memorial's dedication, despite opposition. "We consider this an honorable flag. This is a soldier's flag," said Ron Casteel, national chief of staff for the Sons of Confederate Veterans, one of the memorial's planners. "There will be no substitute." Camp Butler, just east of Springfield, was a training facility for Union troops during the Civil War and a prison camp for more than 3,500 captured Confederates. More than 800 of the prisoners...

While all the anti war cowards were screaming for Bush to cut and run and our willing accomplice main stream media acting like kids in a candy store. I heard someone on talk radio say that during the civil war Lincoln had his media detracters thrown in the bottom of a war ship until the war was over. But I can't find any facts on-line to back it up. Does any one know where I might go to find information on this? I mentioned this to a (left wing co-worker) and he thinks I made it up. I sure would...

Southern heritage buffs vow to use the Virginia gubernatorial election as a platform for designating April as Confederate History and Heritage Month. The four candidates have differing views on the Confederacy, an issue that has been debated for years in the commonwealth. "We're not just a few people making a lot of noise," said Brag Bowling, a spokesman for the Sons of Confederate Veterans, the oldest hereditary organization for male descendents of Confederate soldiers. "This is not a racial thing; it is good for Virginia. We're going to keep pushing this until we get it." Each candidate recently shared his...

At Ford's Theater in Washington, D.C., John Wilkes Booth, an actor and Confederate sympathizer, fatally wounds President Abraham Lincoln. The attack came only five days after Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered his massive army at Appomattox, effectively ending the American Civil War. Booth, who remained in the North during the war despite his Confederate sympathies, initially plotted to capture President Lincoln and take him to Richmond, the Confederate capital. However, on March 20, 1865, the day of the planned kidnapping, the president failed to appear at the spot where Booth and his six fellow conspirators lay in wait. Two...

Each February, many people—particularly conservatives and Republicans—celebrate the presidency of Abraham Lincoln. In our public schools and through our popular culture, we are taught to admire and praise the “Defender of the Union,” “Lover of Liberty,” and “Great Emancipator.” Many teachers even refer to him by his congressional campaign moniker: Honest Abe. As a black person and a conservative Republican, I am expected to sing the praises of Mr. Lincoln the loudest, but my love of liberty and history simply won’t permit it. Many believe the civil war was fought because Lincoln refused to compromise his principles and insisted upon...

MY REVIEW of C.A. Tripp's The Intimate World of Abraham Lincoln for THE WEEKLY STANDARD has caught the attention of several bloggers--but Andrew Sullivan seems to have been the most irritated. Indeed, his website contains half a dozen angry references to my essay--and that's not counting the drive-by blast he fired off in a column for the New Republic.Perhaps Sullivan deserves some answer, for he insists THE WEEKLY STANDARD must apologize for my calling Tripp's book a hoax and a fraud--although one would have more confidence in Sullivan's complaints if he gave a stronger sense of having actually read my...

NBC's Today spent much of Tuesday's show incessantly plugging an upcoming story about a book by a gay advocate which claims that President Abraham Lincoln was gay. Katie Couric, for instance, contrasted Lincoln's image of honesty with the new charge: "He's famous, of course, as 'Honest Abe,' but was former President Abraham Lincoln not completely honest when it came to his sexuality?" Ann Curry set up the eventual story: "Now to an interesting question that has surfaced about one of this country's most revered Presidents nearly 150 years later. Was Abraham Lincoln gay?" That story included those who don't buy...

Geez, that month I spent with a breakaway sect of the Seventh Day Adventists in Washington Heights was really an adventure. It just wasn't for me, though. Know what I mean? They were all like: "You must abstain from impure acts." And I was kind of skeptical initially. Then, they came back with: "Well, it's not like your whack game is getting any play in the first place. Just give it up already!" And I was all like: "Screw you buddy! I still have FreeRepublic." Thanks for being there, guys!

Dean expected in city Jan. 10 Candidate to speak at AFSCME meeting By JOHN REYNOLDS STAFF WRITER The race for the White House is expected to cut through Springfield next week when Democratic frontrunner Howard Dean comes to town. Henry Bayer, executive director of American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 31, said Wednesday that Dean is expected to speak to the union's legislative conference Jan. 10. The event is not open to the public, but about 500 union members are expected to attend the event at the Hilton Springfield. "Most of our members haven't seen him in...