Spot The Uninvited Guest!
  The Nixon Legacy lives on, in the form of the desperate schemes his presidential library was forced to undertake before they collapsed into the arms of the National Archives.
Now the Archives runs a lot of the place, but the Nixon Library & Birthplace Foundation still controls some of the buildings and grounds.
The centerpiece of their tiny realm is a “recreation” of the White House East Room, 
  if the East Room had monster skylights.
In the words of Nixon daughter Julie Eisenhower, “It’s more beautiful than I expected“.
Wedding guests do the usual classy wedding things…
Plaster the bride with bills 
Wear unfortunate shoes 
Pose with available machinery 
Bring mystery guests to the table 
 & pose by the Nixon grave! 
Baath Waters Run Deep 
Former Iraqi Strongman Saddam Hussein’s yacht Ocean Breeze was for sale by these guys, but the current Iraqi government spoiled the party, snatching back the ship as ill-gotten loot. The Ocean Breeze was to have gone on sale in Nice, where it showed up after spending twenty years holed up in Saudi Arabia.
Now Iraq is putting this remnant of the eighties on sale at last!
It’s reported to be super-swanky throughout, with 
all the gilded table legs a kleptocracy could need.
Saddam appears to have opted for defense in depth with yachts as he did palaces. Â 
     This one did not survive the American invasion.
Ship Shape! 
In further Dictator Chic News, The Sunday Times reports great progress on the Tikrit area Saddam Presidential Library & Tomb.  
The grave itself is looking sharp, and his tribesman have added that special Presidential Library touch, the “recreation” of the great man’s office. 
New Math For Tired Arguments    
America’s ceaseless quest for a New Reagan has taken myriad forms, from Charlie Crist, to Sarah Palin, to Barack Obama.
That last one has proven controversial!
Now Reaganauts of the true faith are fighting back, mobilising the armies of infectious optimism to carry John McCain over the last mile.
A hilariously ignorant ad by neverfindout.org shows it’s the economy, stupider:
“MAN 1: Senator McCain, history has shown us your economic plans will work.
WOMAN 1: When Ronald Reagan took office, the economy was far worse than it is today.
MAN 2: You understand that Reagan’s plan worked. Senator Obama does not.”
What were His wonder working ways?
             “Ronald Reagan cut spending and reduced the size of the federal government. Senator Obama plans to increase spending by nearly a trillion dollars. So who’s right?”
Gosh, if by “cutting” you mean increase by a quarter, and if by “reduced” you mean added 200,000 federal workers, then they are right on track.
Bill Clinton was actually closer to their mad dream. He cut heads, and shrank the government portion of GDP by twice what Reagan did.
 What Reagan did do is jack up unemployment, cut incomes and goose the stock market, and Clinton beat him on that last marker too.
| Average Annual Change |
1960s |
1970s |
1980s |
1990s |
| Real GDP |
4.4% |
3.3% |
3.1% |
3.1% |
| Productivity |
2.9% |
2.0% |
1.4% |
1.9% |
| Employment |
1.9% |
2.4% |
1.7% |
1.3% |
| S&P 500: Real Returns |
6.6% |
Ã0.5% |
12.9% |
15.9% |
| Real Weekly Wages |
1.45% |
Ã0.27% |
Ã0.72% |
0.28% |
| Real Median Family income |
3.21% |
0.76% |
1.01% |
0.95% |
| Average Level of Inflation |
2.3% |
7.1% |
5.6% |
3.0% |
| Average Level of Unemployment |
4.8% |
6.2% |
7.3% |
5.8% |
 source: Dollars & Sense
“MAN 5: Senator McCain, we are hopeful.
MAN 4: Because your economic policies are the policies of Ronald Reagan.
MAN 2: As a nation in crisis, we’d be fools not to embrace your ideas.
ANNOUNCER: What happens when we pick the alternative? Please America. Let’s never find out. “
 Creating Facts On The Ground 
Even as the Republican Experiment appears to be collapsing on all fronts, the South Orange County Community College District is standing against the tide.
While cowards balk and traitors sneer, they go ahead, boldly naming their Board of Trustees meeting room for Ronald Reagan.
The District board meets at it’s Saddleback College in Mission Viejo, and they are reaching back to the school’s early days to find a Reagan connection beyond nostalgia for Orange County’s Republican king-making days.
Interest in their Reaganesque past must be of fairly recent interest, as a search of Saddleback’s site finds no/nothing Reagan.
Reagan did attend a Saddleback dedication ceremony as Governor in 1968, 
  but that location was abandoned when the current campus was dedicated in 1970.
Turnout Is Key! 
San Francisco citizens approach their hour of decision Tuesday, as they vote on naming a local sewage treatment plant in honor of George W. Bush.
The Dream That Might Be 
The San Francisco Presidential Memorial Commission put the renaming before the voters, 
 unlike Albania and Ghana, 
where Bush naming descended from on high.
