Noted Here and There ...

Before you endorse the appointment of Alberto Gonzales as Attorney General, read Phillip Carter's"Loyal to a Fault?" at Slate. Meanwhile, the Washington Post reports that senior staff at the CIA is in turmoil under its new director, Porter Goss.

For the last 30 years, Historical Statistics of the U.S.: Colonial Times to 1970 has been a major resource for American historians. Now, it is available on the net.

Vanity Fair's Daily Dose looks like a cross between Arts and Letters Daily and a good blogroll. That can not be a bad thing.

The Institute for Southern Studies in Durham, North Carolina, was founded by former civil rights activists in 1970. Since 1979, it has published Southern Exposure. The Institute offers these data about the recent election:

Amount by which number of voters aged 18-29 increased from 2000 to 2004, in millions: 4.6
Percent of Latinos in the South that voted for President Bush: 64
Estimated cost of 2004 Congressional and Presidential elections, in billions: 3.9
Percent of House races in which the candidate who spent the most money won: 96
Percent of Senate races in which the biggest spender won: 91
Number of votes for Sen. John Kerry for President in Southern states in 2004, in millions: 9.8
Number of Southern Electoral College votes that will go to Sen. Kerry: 0

Meanwhile, President Bush's popular vote surpassed 60,000,000 as late tallies continue. His margin of victory has declined slightly to 3.3 million. This Yahoo site offers an enormous amount of information. Just click around.

Once regarded as a flip-flopping liteweight among the philosophe, Denis Diderot has won a more positive historical reputation in the last fifty years. David Coward explains why in the Times Literary Supplement.