Turnout Is Key

Sitting Pretty? smu-logo.jpg

The Bush Library opposition is betting on delegates to a local Methodist church conference overturning Southern Methodist University’s deal with the President.

But they may be betting on a weak horse. So far opponents lack even a single delegate to stand with them suing Methodist Bishops over conference rules.

“Our legal team tells us that we need to go to court to give us the best chance to protect the property rights and voting rights of the 290 Jurisdictional Conference delegates who are the elected representatives of the property owners, i.e., the 1.83 million UMC members of the South Central Jurisdiction (SCJ). To do so we need at least one delegate who is willing to step forward and be the plaintiff in the case. We have not found such a delegate.”

Opponents have been canvassing delegates, but the opposition seems soft at best:

“We need 146 votes to win. If we can educate the delegates about the dangers of the Bush partisan think thank to the academic integrity of SMU and the good name of our church, we can win the vote…The majority of the delegates feel they can live with the library, even with its current limitation — censorship by the president and his heirs in perpetuity through his Executive Order 13233, signed soon after 9/11. What many delegates are disturbed by and will vote against is the partisan think-tank to honor George Bush, which is being organized by Karl Rove. Neither SMU nor the United Methodist Church will have any control over the direction of the partisan institute, and that deeply troubles many. If given an opportunity by the SCJ bishops to vote, there is a good chance that the delegates will reject the partisan institute.”

Mything Reagan

Don’t Try This At Home reagan-sherif-gun.jpg

The Boston Herald visits the storied Reagan Ranchtrademark3.gif, and learns that Ronald Reagan was Just Like Us, if by us you mean a god ‘n guns guy. Because after all, ‘The last U.S. president to hunt was Ronald Reagan…”

Maybe so, but try and find a picture of Reagan with a gun which isn’t a movie still.

The Reagan Ranch is now run as a conservative tourist/fundraising stop by the Young Americas Foundation, and they had beloved Boston talk radio personality Michael Graham up for a look.

He was not disappointed.

“…while roaming the Reagan Ranch just outside Santa Barbara, I saw with my own eyes the vast gulf between and the politician some believe is the Reagan of 2008, Barack Obama…It was on display in the two (count ‘em, TWO!) leather-covered Bibles in the Reagan bedroom and the well-stocked gun case nearby.”

What he saw and how they got there is unknowable given the YAF’s dubious history of artifact shuffling.

Let’s explore the land of the ever-fruitful “Reagan Jeep.”

The Spring 2006 issue of YAF’s Libertas has a blue jeep at the ranch, reagan-ranch-jeep-blue.jpg

but by August a visiting right wing blogger saw a red jeep, reagan-ranch-jeep-red.JPG which appears to have some provenance. reagan-driving-red-jeep.jpg

The YAFers seem confused. Their publication mentions Ronald Reagan’s jeep called “Gipper.” on display at their Santa Barbara “Reagan Ranch Center.”

[note “scrambler”]

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Perhaps their confusion comes from a license plate they have . reagan-ranch-jeep-plate.JPG

I have no idea what they have, and they may not either.
reagan-ranch-auction-jeep.jpg Yet another “Reagan jeep” was offered for sale at a Houston car auction in early May 2008.

Nixon Discredited!

I Dream of Africa nixon-windbreaker.jpg

The Ghanaian army has ended our fun, denouncing independent presidential candidate Richard Nixon Tetteh as a fraud.

nixon-ghana-richard-nixon-tetteh.jpg Tetteh claimed to be a former Warrant Officer, but the army says he was only a private, and under the name Samuel Nixon Tettey.

Bad Read

Weakly Readers bush-laura-read-all-abou8t-it.jpg

bush-laura-jenna-book-tour.jpg The mother/daughter Bush author tag team worked it almost up to Jenna’s wedding, but America’s paper of record is unimpressed.

“Whom is this book supposed to convince, and of what? Leaving aside that part of the base who will find the conjuring of ghosts and dragons deeply suspicious, kids who already understand how stories work will see that this one doesn’t, and kids who don’t like stories won’t be persuaded otherwise. … The point is laboriously made, the teachers’ names are dorky, the plot is hectic and the suspense and dialogue are artificial. What child today says “pesky”?”

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Message: I Care

Signal Intelligence bush-watch-this-drive.jpg

Your War President wants you to know: he cares about sending wrong signals.

Getting his story straight is another thing.

President Bush let it be known in an interview with The Politico that he too feels families pain over Iraq [but not enough to attend soldier’s funerals], and he’s given up golf for the duration.

“I don’t want some mom whose son may have recently died to see the commander in chief playing golf,” he said. “I feel I owe it to the families to be in solidarity as best as I can with them. And I think playing golf during a war just sends the wrong signal.”

But apparently not bush-bike.jpg biking,

bush-fishing.jpg fishing,

bush-segway.jpg segwaying,

or near religious bush-opening-day-2004.jpg

bush-opening-day-2006.jpg attendence bush-opening-day-2007.jpg

at baseball’s bush-opening-day-2008.jpg opening day.

When did the light go on?

“Bush said he made that decision after the August 2003 bombing of the United Nations headquarters in Baghdad, which killed Sergio Vieira de Mello, the top U.N. official in Iraq and the organization’s high commissioner for human rights…”I remember when de Mello, who was at the U.N., got killed in Baghdad as a result of these murderers taking this good man’s life,” he said. “I was playing golf — I think I was in central Texas — and they pulled me off the golf course and I said, ‘It’s just not worth it anymore to do.’”

But as AFP reports, he kept playing for two more months.

He’d been under the spotlight before things went south in Iraq, most famously while denouncing suicide bombers in 2002.


” “I call upon all nations to do everything they can to stop these terrorist killers.”

His business out of the way, Bush barely paused for breath before saying, “Thank you. Now watch this drive.”

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