Honor Roll 
Brussels journall takes the time to go where the streets have no name, or at least not ones it approves of. Thanks to the ceaseless proliferation of web-based tools they offer what can only be hoped is the definitive survey of
Belgian Streets Named after US Presidents
Road-map to the Stars 
Why-ever they might feel this way is unaddressed, although Donald Rumsfeld‘s thoughtful intervention overturning Belgium’s war crimes law recently can’t have helped.
Where Did The Time Go? 
Part of the entertainment value of thumb-suckers musing over the Bush Administration’s “Legacy” is who asks the questions. It’s our old friends and perpetual whipping boys, The Media!
A part of society which for the most part went unquestioningly into battle in Iraq, and which let Ronald Reagan and Gerald Ford go to their graves as demigods, is in charge of the searching questions in the last months.
And don’t think Bush’s people aren’t watching. Dick Cheney’s Lincoln/Truman lonely visionary talking points have been consistent over time, with Gerald Ford thrown in on occasion. The most recent example came in a follow up to his “So?” interview dismissing popular opinion over the war. Cheney claims that nice things said during Ford’s funeral week justify the Nixon pardon, which also means Iraq will look great in three decades.
“…he demonstrated, I think, great courage and great foresight, and the country was better off for what Jerry Ford did that day. And 30 years later, everybody recognized it…And I have the same strong conviction the issues we’re dealing with today — the global war on terror, the war in Afghanistan and Iraq — that all of the tough calls the president has had to make, that 30 years from now it will be clear that he made the right decisions, and that the effort we mounted was the right one, and that if we had listened to the polls, we would have gotten it wrong.”
Destiny’s Darlings 
Fin Fakery 
Is there a public occasion left in America not marred by reenactors? 
In this case the faux Emancipator is launching the purple-ish new Lincoln $5 bill [Alternative currency slogan: Every day we’re looking more Brazilian!] at the Lincoln Library in Springfield Illinois.
President Bush bumps along at record low popularity, but he is still apparently beloved in Troy, New York.
A video instalation intitled The Night of Bush Capturing stoked the ever hot outrage of the local College Republicans, eventually being run out of both Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and a local art center[the latter for alleged building code violations coincident with a picket line by local Republicans].
Leading the charge is local pol Robert Mirch.
“Allowing for the portrayal of the assassination of a president to be staged is wrong, un-American and destructive.”
Let’s enjoy some examples! 
That’s The Stuff! 
Too Soon To Tell 
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.
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. “
