Barack Obama’s Storybook Theatre
07-Jan-09
Less This 
More Of This 
“You Let Me Supply The Pictures & I’ll Let You Write The Story.”Â
The late Reagan svengali Michael Deaver summed up the role of White House image creation, as the nation learns Barack Obama has hired Ronald Reagan’s White House Photographer Pete Souza to do the same job for him.
Apparently left at the curb is campaign photographer David Katz, 
 whose election night photo dump was popular enough to crash flickr.
Is the would-be monetization where it all went South?
The Obama Legacy Project
02-Jan-09
Greatness Comes Early On Long Island 
The Economist features a roundup of current presidential naming activity, and not surprisingly there appears to be no last minute rush to name things for the outgoing fella.
Instead, waves of hope crash over towns and municipalities, school boards and city councils, as a net-aroused citizenry demands Barack Obama’s name be slapped onto any and all available public real estate.
Only small advances so far.
Hempstead Long Island [or in an eccentric English spelling, “Hamstead”] is proud home to Barack Obama Elementary School, 
 claimed as the nation’s first.
There have been setbacks.
His Name was rejected in Tacoma Washington, Marin County California, and Valley Stream Long Island.
The record on road naming is mixed as well. St.Louis may finalize naming a boulevard for Obama this month, but an effort in Hollywood Florida will have to go through the Republican state legislature. Opa-locka Florida has gone ahead with slapping his name on an existing street, furthering the irritating South Florida tradition where every other street seems named for Ponce De Leon and Commissioner Andrea Rubin, along with some original 1920’s developer.
Barack busting out all over has provoked an unusually moronic backlash.
Mark Impomeni isn’t afraid to salute brave Valley Streamers for standing up to the name change artists…
“The parents who balked at the name change were wise to do so, for “tradition” or any other reason.“
…before moving on to the real fun: pissing once more on Bill Clinton.
The shocking facts
“Bill Clinton was elected to the presidency twice. Yet Wikipedia lists no naming of a school for him in its list of accolades that the former president has received since he left the White House”
No higher authority than Wikepedia’s citizen encyclopedists exists, but sadly they missed a few here, and led Mark astray.
The Ghost Who Walks  
There’s the William Jefferson Clinton Elementary School in Compton California, Sherwood Arkansas William Jefferson Clinton Elementary School [he spoke at its dedication] and the William J Clinton Elementary School of La Joya, Texas. [Google: embrace it!]
The current fellow isn’t faring so well.
 His visit to the apparent sole Bush-named school in Stockton California is elaborately documented on the White House site.
No one seems to care, and while carrying water for Israel earned Bush the notion of a “Bush Center” in Israel, the Knesset killed the idea in 2007.
Lincoln: Never Call Retreat?
02-Dec-08
The Lincoln Studies blog downplays the New York Times story on a Lincoln commemorative issue of American Heritage running Confederate tchotsky ads.
Eric Foner and a writer for the special issue are suitably outraged, but the Lincoln Students are rather relaxed.
“How many Confederate-themed items are available at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum gift shop? I’m not absolutely positive, but I bet you could buy a rebel flag if you wished.”
 Actually, a year ago you could buy this Confederate trinket from the Lincoln Library, but not currently.
The problem with this is the dilution of knowledge such commercial crap can only further, the 21st century version of the post-war reconciliation where everyone agreed to be heroes, do down the blacks, and build the empire.  
 Fudging up facts, and that great sin in the eyes of neo-cons, relativism, ends us up with bad history, and in schlock.