Yasser, He’s Our Baby

Book Buddies rabinh-clinton-arafat.jpg

From Palestine comes a first: a Presidential Library honoring the dead leader of a barely functional fragment of an occupied territory. The Presidential Library contagion has now spread to the Israeli occupied West Bank, where an institute devoted to the late Yasser Arafat will now join the proud line of American inspired memorialist buildings.

Perhaps they can do exchanges with the new Rabin institute.

Nothing To See Here

Everything Must Go! white-house-burning.jpg

Whatever will they fill the SMU Bush Library with?

The White House has said it may have “lost” as many as five million emails, than said it didn’t know and resented the question.

Henry Waxman hosted the White House’s email trackers and the Archivist of the United States, exploring whether the Bush Library at SMU will have anything to put in the place.

bush-at-computer.jpg Whatever they did to preserve email, Waxman says they did it intentionally.

“[The White House] dismantled an effective system and replaced it with a primitive alternative that just didn’t work…It initiated its own study of missing e-mails in 2005 and now derisively attacks its own work as incompetent and grossly inaccurate.”

Archivist Alan Weinstein is supposed to be watching how the White House keeps it’s papers, but appears to have been incurious to say the least. Bush named him to the post in murky circumstances, and he’s had trouble with papers before.

All Better Now!

Turn That Frown Upside Down!

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Amidst planning parking, demolition and President Bush’s Image Lab, Bush Library Host & SMU President Gerald Turner told the Dallas Morning News he’s found a special benefit for all of Dallas: easing what he thoughtfully calls the “Kennedy Issue.

“But underneath all the details, he said, the library will provide global visibility for the school and for a city where the assassination of John. F. Kennedy remains entrenched in the memories of many…”A positive element … will be Dallas’ relationship with the presidency of the United States on the other side of the Kennedy issue,” he said”

In other happy image rehab news, George W. Bush Presidential Library Foundation President Mark Langdale says Karl Rove has emerged from his subpeona dodging long enough to render still more service to the nation.

“Karl’s pretty busy doing a lot of things in his private life right now, but he’s a critical resource about what happened in the administration, and he has a lot of good ideas about programming and positioning,” said Mr. Langdale”


And former White House counsel, CIA tape destruction bystander and Contempt of Congress scofflaw Harriet Miers is helping out with the Library’s lawyering.

Dallas Do-Over? kennedy-post-card-dealey.gif

Ever Forward!

Too Soon To Tell gonzales-bush.jpg

Departed Attorney General Alberto Gonzales spoke in Washington University St. Louis recently, doing his part for Operation Take Comfort, the Bush Administration’s full bore effort to pre-Trumanize themselves as they head for the exits.

National Treasure Al Kamen
spotted it for the Washington Post.

Despite much University self congratulation about how civil and thoughtfully discussive it all was, the event had some odd notes. The Ex Ag was paid $30,000 out of student fees, but for some reason recording was not permitted, so all we have to go on is Gonzo’s prepared text.

gonzales-wide.jpg Along with his insight that “life is not a classroom,” the kids were favored with Gonzales’s stylings on that hack self-apology defense of the indefensible, Teddy Roosevelt’s “Man In The Arena.”

And just how did his face get marred as he strove valiantly?

…standing in the President’s private office in the White House residence as the President executes a document you helped prepare . . . a paper historians will study.

Unclear if presenting the torture papers to President Bush was the proud and positive moment in question.

No matter. Gonzo looks ahead!

“We know the first drafts of history’s manuscripts are often inaccurate or incomplete, and eventually discarded. “

The Magnificent Georgian*

“Surprisingly, there aren’t that many museums or monuments to Stalin anymore.” stalin-carpet.jpg

From Carpetblogger comes a report on a visit to Stalin’s hometown and the local museum, the highlight of which from her account appears to be the ticket stamps. stalin-home-stamped.jpg

“Built just after his death in 1953, it’s a typical Soviet-style museum, in which a bunch of uncurated, unanalyzed crap — newspaper articles and photos and random memorabilia — is thrown up on the wall (“unanalyzed” is probably the kindest criticism of this museum. It’s a lot like the Nixon Library in Yorba Linda, California in that sense).”

Our gal is a serial offender on Uncle Joe, having previously filed on the memorialization of Stalin’s sojourn in Batumi.

Hottie“? stalin-at-the-batumi-station.jpg

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